The four countries affected by the cuts – Finland, Germany, Lithuania and Sweden – have all launched investigations, with Berlin and Swedish police saying they suspected “sabotage”.
Finnish telecoms operator Cinia reported Monday that the “C-Lion1 submarine cable” connecting Helsinki and the German port of Rostock had been cut south of Oland island in Swedish waters, some 700km from Helsinki.
“These kinds of breaks don’t happen in these waters without an outside impact,” a Cinia spokesperson said.
The foreign ministers of Germany, Annalena Baerbock, and Finland, Elina Valtonen, said it hinted at foul play.
“The fact that such an incident immediately raises suspicions of intentional damage speaks volumes about the volatility of our times,” they said in a joint statement late Monday.
“Our European security is not only under threat from Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine but also from hybrid warfare by malicious actors.”
The “Arelion” submarine cable between the Swedish island of Gotland and Lithuania has also been damaged since Sunday, a spokesman for the Lithuanian branch of the operator Telia, Audrius Stasiulaitis, said Tuesday.
“We can confirm that the interruption to internet traffic was not caused by an equipment fault but by material damage to the fibre optic cable,” he said.
