German Defense Minister Suspects Sabotage After Two Baltic Sea Fiber Optic Cables Cut

Authorities in at least four NATO countries have launched investigations following the damage to a second communications cable connecting Nordic countries to mainland Europe.

German defense minister Boris Pistorius said on Tuesday that sabotage has to be suspected, describing the incidents as acts of “hybrid” warfare:

No one believes that these cables were cut accidentally . . . 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.

Finnish authorities yesterday reported that a cable in the Baltic Sea, located outside the general shipping lane, had been completely severed around 2 a.m. on Monday. 

Another fiber optics cable connecting Sweden and Lithuania was cut at 10 a.m. on Sunday, according to Andrius Šemeškevičius, technical director for Lithuanian communications company LRT. He emphasized the seriousness of the situation, noting that the two cables intersect:

[T]he cables cross in an area of only ten square meters, they intersect … Since both are damaged, it is clear that this was not an accidental dropping of one of the ship’s anchors, but something more serious could be going on.”

BREAKING:

Another submarine telecom cable has been cut in the Baltic Sea.

This time it’s a cable between Sweden and Lithuania.

Yesterday, the news broke that a cable between Finland and Germany had been cut. pic.twitter.com/Hh5QbZq6LL

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) November 19, 2024

In a joint statement, the German and Finnish foreign ministers said a thorough investigation is underway:

We are deeply concerned about the severed undersea cable connecting Finland and Germany in the Baltic Sea. The fact that such an incident immediately raises suspicions of intentional damage speaks volumes about the volatility of our times. … Our European security is not only under threat from Russia‘s war of aggression against Ukraine, but also from hybrid warfare by malicious actors.”

“We have a good situational overview of the area and are monitoring the development, and we are also exchanging information with relevant parties and allies,” Henrik Nyström, press secretary at the Swedish Armed Forces told state broadcaster SVT.

Lithuanian state security services are also looking into the situation, according to President Gitanas Nausėda. While it is too early to draw conclusions, he said, previous damage to critical infrastructure in the Baltic Sea has been linked both to malicious activity and unintentional negligence. 

In addition to the 2022 Nord Stream gas pipeline sabotage, blamed on Ukraine and still under investigation, another gas pipeline and two data cables were cut in the Gulf of Finland last year. In that case, the anchor of a Chinese ship was the cause—whether intentional or by accident has not been determined.

NATO countries have increased surveillance of the “tens of thousands of kilometres” of cables and pipelines, FT reports.