Two telecommunications cables were damaged in the Baltic Sea in forty-eight hours between Finland and Germany on the one hand, and Sweden and Lithuania on the other, reviving suspicions of ” sabotage » and “ hybrid warfare » with Russia.
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The C-Lion1, a 1,172 kilometer submarine cable connecting Helsinki to the seaport of Rostock Baltic from the north-east of Germany, was broken on Monday November 18, after the detection of a “ default », according to its operator, the Finnish technology group Cinia. This rupture, located south of the island of Öland in Swedish waters, some 700 km from Helsinki, led to the cutting of all the fiber connections of this cable. “ This type of rupture does not occur in these waters without external impact », added the public group. The Finnish police opened an investigation, after receiving a request to this effect from the operator, and “ working to establish what happened during the incident “, she announced in a press release.
Not ” an equipment fault »
A day earlier, on the morning of Sunday, November 17, another telecommunications cable, the Arelion, connecting the Swedish island of Gotland to Lithuania, was damaged, Audrius Stasiulaitis, spokesperson for the Lithuanian branch of the telecommunication cable, explained on Tuesday. Swedish operator Telia. Internet traffic has been redirected to other international connections. “ We can confirm that the interruption of internet traffic was not caused by an equipment fault but by material damage to the fiber optic cable “, he detailed, specifying that customers were not affected.
The Swedish Minister of Defense Carl-Oskar Bohlin assured, on November 19, that the competent authorities of his country were investigating these incidents. “ It is essential to clarify the reasons why two cables do not work in the Baltic Sea “, he said in a message to AFP, without commenting on potential authors. However, the German Minister of Defense, Boris Pistorius, for his part estimated the same day that a “ sabotage » was certainly the cause of the damage. “ No one believes these cables were cut by accident “, he said again.
“ Suspicions » intentional damage
Meeting in Brussels, the foreign ministers of Germany, Annalena Baerbock, and of Finland, Elina Valtonen, discussed the Russian threat. “ Our European security is not only threatened by war of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine but also by hybrid wars waged by malicious actors “, they estimated, “ such an incident immediately raises suspicion of intentional damage “. European countries are increasingly using the term “ hybrid warfare » to describe the actions aimed at harming them carried out according to them by Moscow since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Several incidents have taken place in recent months in the Baltic area, a maritime zone shared by the Nordic countries, balticsPoland andGermanywho are worried about threats of destabilization attributed to Moscow. Faced with the increase in these attacks, former Finnish President Sauli Niinistö called for the establishment of an intelligence cooperation service within the European Union, in a report submitted to the Commission at the end of October 2024. Tensions in the Baltic Sea have increased sharply since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Moscow considers the increase in NATO’s presence near its borders as a provocation and a threat to its security.
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