Sweden has found signs of damage to the Nordbalt cable in the Baltic Sea, a crucial power link between Sweden and Lithuania.
Swedish Defense Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin confirmed the damage, which is believed to have been caused by the Chinese vessel Yi Peng 3. The ship allegedly tore and damaged cables between Sweden and Lithuania, as well as between Germany and Finland, while anchored about 160 km off the coast on November 17 and 18.
Investigators are looking into the incident and suspect that the damage was intentional, as the ship’s captain is believed to have been recruited by Russian intelligence services. On December 25, another electrical cable between Estonia and Finland was severed by the tanker Eagle S, which is suspected of being part of Russia’s “shadow fleet.”
Bolin stated that these incidents may be connected to the disconnection of the Baltic states from the Belarusian-Russian electrical grid in February.
“The reports from Swedish media show that we cannot consider the events in the Baltic Sea as a coincidence. We must take these sabotage attempts, or attempts at sabotage of this infrastructure, very seriously. This highlights the need for NATO’s rapid response to protect the interests of our consumers and our infrastructure, as well as the electricity market and price stability,” commented Arnoldas Pikžirnis, Lithuania’s Deputy Minister of Energy, in an interview with LRT.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson stated on Sunday that while Sweden is not at war, it is not living in peaceful times either. He noted that Sweden is providing resources to NATO forces for the first time and that NATO forces will monitor the Baltic Sea and the entire region due to the heightened threat to infrastructure targets.
