Tension is growing in the Baltic Sea after the cutting of two submarine telecommunications cables between Sweden, Lithuania, Finland and Germany. Strange coincidence or sabotage?
The cut of two submarine fiber optic cables linking telecommunications between Germany, Sweden, Finland and Lithuania may have just been an unfortunate coincidence – or not.
But it comes at a particularly tense moment in the region, after Vladimir Putin have authorized the .
Submarine cable breaks frequently occur due to ground movements or the touching of ship anchors. However, the sabotage hypothesis is on the table, until after what happened in September 2022.
“No one believes they were accidentally cut”
It is not yet known what happened to the two submarine cables, but “no one believes they were accidentally cut“, assumes the Minister of Defense of Germany, Boris Pistorius, highlighting that it was “a hybrid action” and “a sabotage”, as cited by the French newspaper.
Pistorius’ words refer to what is called a “hybrid war” which combines military and non-military actions, namely cyberattacks, disinformation, sabotage, espionage and electoral interference.
“Our European security is not only threatened by Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, but also by hybrid war carried out by ill-intentioned actors“, also highlight, together, the Finnish and German Ministers for Foreign Affairs.
NATO Secretary General accuses Russia
The Swedish and Finnish courts have already opened investigations to try to find out how the two submarine cables were cut.
One of the cables connected telecommunications between Lithuania and the island of Gotland in Sweden and will have been cut on Sunday morning.
On Monday, another cable was damaged between Helsinki and the German port of Rostock in what was the only direct connection between Finland and Central Europe.
Google Maps
Map of the Baltic Sea with two submarine cables cut on November 17 and 18, 2024.
Only during repairs will it be possible to understand what happened, namely what type of damage was caused exactly and how it was caused.
But NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte accuses Russia of being responsible for the damage to submarine cables, framing this alleged action within the scope of the “hybrid war” that aims to take the armed conflict from Ukrainian territory to Western Europe.
“A front line [da guerra] is moving beyond the borders [da Ucrânia] for the Baltic region, Western Europe and even the far north”, highlights Rutte.
The foreign ministers of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom also regret that “escalation of Moscow’s hybrid activities against NATO and European Union countries creates important security risks,” according to a joint statement.
When the Nord Stream gas pipeline was sabotaged, the first suspicions pointed to . But investigations carried out in Germany concluded that the explosion was .
