Damage has been discovered to an underwater cable in the Baltic Sea, announced the minister from the Ministry of Defense at a lightning press conference in Gothenburg. It is unclear what caused the injury.
– Information has been received which claims that there was damage to a telecommunications Estonia and Sweden, says Carl-Oskar Bohlin (M).
Recently, there has been a lot of focus on the infrastructure of cables and wires that run on the bottom of the Baltic Sea. Now the government announces that damage has been discovered to the telecommunications cable between Sweden and Estonia.
– We cannot currently assess what has caused this damage. It is not a total cable break, but there is partial damage to this cable, says Carl-Oskar Bohlin (M).
The damage was discovered during the same time window that a leak was discovered on a gas pipeline in the Gulf of Finland between Estonia and Finland, the government announced. Carl-Oskar Bohlin says that the damage is not in Swedish territorial waters or within the economic zone.
“New Times”
– Contact between the countries’ authorities has been strengthened. Sweden is offering support to Estonia and Finland, which are driving the work to find out what caused the damage, says Carl-Oskar Bohlin (M).
During the day, the government had a meeting with the Director General of the Coast Guard Lena Lindgren Schelin and Navy Commander Ewa Skoog Haslum. Since the damage to the Nord Stream gas pipeline last year, there is heightened vigilance, says Pål Jonson.
– We often mention hybrid warfare and gray zone issues. These events are probably examples of that, says Navy Commander Ewa Skoog Haslum, she says and continues:
– These are new times now, says navy chief Ewa Skoog Haslum.
The cable has continued to function and that is why the damage has only now been discovered.
– This is information that has come gradually, says Carl-Oskar Bohlin (M).