The severing of two undersea fibre-optic communication cables in the Baltic Sea should be seen as an act of sabotage, although it is not yet clear who is responsible, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said on Tuesday.
Two undersea fibre-optic communications cables in the Baltic Sea, including one connecting Finland and Germany, were cut between Sunday and Monday. Pistorius said ahead of a meeting with EU defence ministers in Brussels:
“No one believes that these cables were cut accidentally. I also don’t want to believe in versions that these were anchors that accidentally caused damage over these cables. Therefore we have to state, without knowing specifically who it came from, that it is a “hybrid” action. And we also have to assume, without knowing it yet, that it is sabotage.”
The 1,200-kilometre-long C-Lion1 cable connecting Helsinki to the German port of Rostock stopped working around 02:00 GMT on Monday, Finnish state-owned cybersecurity and telecommunications company Cinia said.
Cinia also said it was too early to judge whether C-Lion1 was damaged intentionally, but did not rule out an external impact. Cinia Chief Executive Ari-Jussi Knaapila claimed:
“Without external impact, there are no such incidents in these waters.”
A 218-kilometre internet cable between Lithuania and the Swedish island of Gotland failed at around 08:00 GMT on Sunday, according to Lithuania’s Telia Lietuva, part of Sweden’s Telia Company group.
In a joint statement, Finland and Germany said they were “deeply concerned about the severed submarine cable” and were investigating “an incident that immediately raises suspicions of intentional damage.”
Telia Lietuva spokesman Audrius Stasiulaitis said another cable had also been severed. It is owned and operated by Swedish company Arelion to carry Telia Lietuva’s internet traffic, the Telia spokesman said. Swedish Civil Defence Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin told Swedish public broadcaster SVT:
“It is very important to find out why two cables are currently down in the Baltic Sea.”
The Baltic Sea, located in northern Europe, is an active commercial shipping route and is ringed by nine countries, including Russia.
Past incidents with undersea cables
Last year, an undersea gas pipeline and several telecoms cables running under the Baltic Sea were severely damaged in an incident that caused alarm in the region.
Balticconnector, an undersea gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia, was damaged last October. A Chinese cargo ship, the Newnew Polar Bear, was found to have been involved in the damage – its anchor hit the pipeline. The South China Morning Post quoted sources as saying that China recognised the accidental damage to the Balticconnector by its vessel.
The Nord Stream pipelines connecting Russia and Germany in the Baltic Sea were destroyed by explosions in 2022, and German authorities are still investigating the incident.
Finland is participating in the Far North Fiber project to lay an undersea fibre optic cable across the Arctic Ocean to Japan. The cable is expected to be almost 17,000 kilometres long.
