Germany’s Defence Minister, Boris Pistorius, has stated that the damage caused to two undersea fibre-optic cables in the Baltic Sea should be considered sabotage, although the perpetrators remain unknown.
“No one believes that these cables were cut accidentally. I also don’t want to believe in versions that these were anchors that accidentally caused damage over these cables,” Pistorius said ahead of a meeting with EU defence ministers in Brussels.
He emphasized that the incident should be classified as a “hybrid” action and that it’s reasonable to assume, despite the lack of evidence, that it was an act of sabotage.
The cables were severed on Monday, raising concerns about potential malicious activity in the region, recalling last year’s damage to a gas pipeline and undersea cables, as well as the Nord Stream gas pipeline explosions in 2022.
The affected 745-mile (1,200km) cable, which links Helsinki to the German port of Rostock, ceased functioning around 2am GMT on Monday, according to Cinia, the Finnish state-controlled cybersecurity and telecoms company. A 135-mile internet link between Lithuania and Sweden’s Gotland island was also disrupted early Sunday, around 8am GMT, as reported by Lithuania’s Telia Lietuva, part of Sweden’s Telia Company group.
