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Recent underwater sabotage incidents suspected in the Baltic Sea

Since 2022, the Baltic Sea region has experienced several suspicious incidents of damage to underwater critical infrastructure. However, authorities have not been able to prove malicious intent.

BALTIC TELECOM CANALS IN 2024 In the latest case, two underwater fibre-optic communication cables that were located at a distance of more than 200 km (about 100 nautical miles) in the Baltic Sea bottom have been severed on the 17th and 18th of November. This has raised suspicions about sabotage.

According to Lithuanian Telia Lietuva (part of Swedish Telia Company), a 218-km (135 mile) internet connection between Lithuania and Sweden’s Gotland Island was taken out of service around 0800 GMT Sunday, November 17.

Cinia, the Finnish cyber security and telecoms firm controlled by the Finnish government, said that a 1,200-km (745 mile) cable connecting Helsinki with Rostock in Germany stopped working at 0200 GMT Monday 18th November. Investigators from the countries involved have focused on the Chinese bulk carrier Yi Peng 3 which left the Russian Port of Ust-Luga in Nov. 15. An analysis of MarineTraffic showed that the ship’s coordinates matched the time and location of the breaches.

OCT 2023 - BALTICCONNECTOR PIPE AND FIBER CABLES A subsea pipeline, the Balticconnector that links Finland and Estonia in the Baltic Sea was cut last year by what Finnish investigators determined to be a Chinese container ship NewNew Polar Bear that dragged its anchor early on Oct. 8, 2023. Estonian police suspect that the ship also damaged two separate telecoms cable connecting Estonia with Finland and Sweden between Oct. 8-9, before hitting a gas pipeline while on its way to St Petersburg, Russia. China promised to help Finland and Estonia with their investigations, but has not followed through.

The Finnish and Estonian investigators are unable to determine if the Hong Kong flagged vessel caused the damages by accident or intentionally, nor have they provided their conclusions.

SEPT 2022 : NORD STREAM BLASTS

On September 26, 2022, Nord Stream 1 & 2 were damaged. They are two pipelines built by Russia’s state-controlled Gazprom across the Baltic Sea to transport natural gas from Russia to Germany.

Swedish seismologists recorded several subsea explosions that occurred 17 hours apart off the Danish Island of Bornholm. These blasts ruptured three of four lines in the Nord Stream System, releasing plumes of methane. Sweden's investigations found explosive residue on several recovered objects, confirming that the incident was deliberate. However, both Sweden and Denmark ended their investigations in 2024 without naming any suspects.

No one has accepted responsibility. Some Western officials suggested that Moscow had blown up its own pipes, but Vladimir Putin dismissed this interpretation as "idiotic".

Russia blames the United States, Britain, and Ukraine for the explosions that have largely cut off Russian gas from the lucrative European markets. These countries deny involvement. The German government issued a European Arrest Warrant in August of this year against a Ukrainian diver instructor who was accused of being a member of a team which blew up Nord Stream Pipelines, but he had already left Poland. Reporting by Anne Kauranen, in Helsinki; Johan Ahlander, in Gothenburg; Stine Jacobsen, in Copenhagen; and Andrius Sytas, in Vilnius. Editing by Andrew Cawthorne.

(source: Reuters)