Suspected Baltic cable sabotage: we know

Swedish authorities are investigating possible sabotage after two communications cables in the Baltic Sea were damaged.

Scandinavian NATO police and prosecutor Henrik Soderman said on Tuesday the crime was now classified as vandalism. However, this classification is still subject to change.

Sodman also noted that the investigation is in its early stages. No further information can be released at this time.

However, initial signs appear to point to suspicious vessel activity in the area. He said the movements coincided in time and space with events on the cable. Swedish Civil Protection Minister Karl-Oscar Bolinbroadcaster TV4. This prompted police to launch an investigation into alleged sabotage.

Swedish broadcaster SVT reported that a Chinese ship was of particular concern after it allegedly sailed past the cable from a Russian oil port.

Multiple lines are affected

Suspecting sabotage, the Swedes confirmed the suspicion… German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius It was expressed in the morning. He believes the damage to submarine cables between Finland and Germany and Sweden and Lithuania was intentional. “No one believes that these cables were accidentally cut,” said a Social Democratic politician in Brussels. People have to own up to the vandalism. However, there is currently no evidence of this.

One of the affected cables is called C-Lion 1 The total length of the line between Helsinki and Rostock is 1,173 kilometers. On Monday, Finnish state company Cinia discovered flaws in an undersea line put into operation in 2016 that serves as an undersea information highway connecting data centers in central and northern Europe. The connection is along part of the same route as the Nord Stream pipeline that was destroyed two years ago.

Sinia believes the cable broke on the Baltic Sea floor and was severed by external influences, such as anchors or seabed trawls. Whether that was intentional or not – like many things in this case, is unclear.

Finnish internet users are said to have not experienced any major outages so far. According to the Finnish Transport and Communications Authority, data traffic has not been permanently disrupted. Cinia said it would take about five to 15 days to repair the cable.

Also announced on Monday… Arelion communication cable between Gotland, Sweden and Lithuania Another data cable was damaged deep in the Baltic Sea. The Vilnius Prosecutor General's Office is investigating the situation and gathering information about the cable damage that occurred on Sunday.

The cable is said to be quite old and has had failures in the past, usually related to shipping errors. This time, however, one of the suspicious things is that this cable intersects with C-Lion1 at a point east of Gotland.

“We certainly cannot rule out vandalism because there have been warning signs before. This is not the first time and it is nothing new,” Lithuania's Prime Minister-designate Gintautas Paluckas said.

Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and the explosion of the Nord Stream pipeline seven months later, critical infrastructure in the Baltics has become even more of a focus for the public, especially NATO.

In the autumn of 2023, the Baltic Connector pipeline, a vital energy line between Finland and Estonia, was severed, and a data cable between the two EU countries was also damaged.

According to Finnish investigators, the pipeline was likely damaged by the anchor of a Chinese container ship called the Newnew Polar Bear. It was unclear whether the incident was an accident or vandalism.

(Sudanese Development Authority/Department of Political Affairs)

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