Map shows telecom cable between two NATO allies mysteriously severed

An undersea telecommunications cable connecting Finland and Germany across the Baltic Sea was severed, raising suspicions of deliberate damage, NATO member states said.

On Monday, Finnish company Cinia, which builds fiber optic networks and provides telecommunications services, said a “flaw” had been discovered in the C-Lion1 submarine cable. “Due to the outage, the services offered through the C-Lion1 are unavailable,” the company announced.

This was the first time the cable broke, says Ari-Jussi Knaapila, CEO of Cinia. The cable did not break without an external impact, a company spokesperson explained, adding that seismic events – such as earthquakes – could not have been responsible.

“The fact that such an incident immediately raises suspicions of intentional harm speaks volumes about the volatility of our times. A thorough investigation is underway,” Finland and Germany said in a joint statement, expressing deep concern over the incident.

“Our European security is threatened not only by Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, but also by hybrid warfare by malicious actors,” she added. “Protecting our shared critical infrastructure is critical to our security and the resilience of our societies.”

This came after Nikolai Patrushev, former secretary of Russia’s Security Council and ally of President Vladimir Putin, accused the United States and the United Kingdom of trying to sabotage underwater internet cables “to advance their economic interests.”

In an interview published last week, he also claimed that both the US and UK were behind the September 2022 attacks on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines, which run under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany to supply Russian natural gas. .

The 728-mile C-Lion1 will land in Hanko and Helsinki in southern Finland, as well as Rostock in northern Germany. Launched in 2016, it connects Central European telecommunications networks with Finland and other Scandinavian states, according to Cinia.

According to Cinia, the cut part of the cable is located in the waters southeast of the Swedish island of Öland, approximately halfway along the cable. The area of ​​the incident is within Sweden’s exclusive economic zone and outside the busiest shipping area.

Finland’s Security and Intelligence Agency told public broadcaster Yle that it was “too early” to assess the cause of the incident, noting that human activities, including fishing and anchoring, are the most common cause of submarine cable ruptures.

After the incident, Cinia started repair work by bringing a repair ship to the site. However, the company admitted it was not immediately clear how long the work would take. It typically takes five to fifteen days to repair a damaged submarine cable.

Katja Bego, a senior research fellow at Chatham House’s UK International Security Programme, said on social media platform Bluesky that cable faults are not rare in busy shipping areas such as the Baltic Sea. “The vast majority of errors are accidental,” Bego said.

“The usual Kremlin playbook suggests that we interpret this as a warning that this is something that Russia itself is planning to do,” she said, referring to Patrushev’s comment.

Newsweek has contacted the Kremlin and the Russian Foreign Ministry via email for comment.

In the meantime, The Guardian A Russian spy ship reported this on Saturday Yantar has been escorted out of the Irish Sea, which lies between the islands of Ireland and Great Britain, after passing through Irish economic waters carrying undersea pipelines and cables.