Fibreoptic Cables in the Baltic Sea

"[The incidents are] a very clear sign that something is going on here."

"Nobody believes that these cables were accidentally severed."

"We have to state, without knowing exactly who it came from, that this is a hybrid action."

"We also have to assume ... that it is sabotage."

Boris Pistorius, German defence minister

The undersea cable between Helsinki and Rostock was laid in 2015   Getty Images

 

The C-Lion1, two undersea internet cables linking Finland and Germany, saw completion in 2016, a 1,175-kilometre undersea cable providing telecommunications connectivity between Central Europe and the Nordic countries. Germany's minister of defence stated that the two undersea internet cables disruption appear to have been deliberate acts of 'sabotage'. Tension are already high across eastern Europe and this incident will only serve to raise them even higher. 

The cable operator, Cinia, reported the underwater communications cable functioning to connect Finland and Germany had been severed early Monday. A separate communications cable linking Lithuania and Sweden, in the Baltic Sea as well, had sustained damage a day earlier. What precisely occurred with the two cables is not yet fully clear, but German defence minister Pistorius suspects the damage was deliberately inflicted.

 

The Finnish C-Lion1 cable operator, Cinia, stated that the 'cut' to its communications cable had been detected after 4:00 a.m. on Monday, east of the southern tip of the Swedish Island of Oland. A vessel was dispatched after due preparation, to repair the damage, while the firm is conducting an investigation. 

 

While the Finnish and German foreign ministers stated that they remained "deeply concerned", neither official assigned blame for the severed cable.

"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."

Joint statement, Finnish and German foreign ministers