Two Baltic Sea Communication Cables Out of Service

Following U.S. warnings about an increased risk of Russian sabotage, at least one target was physically damaged.

Baltic Sea Undersea Cables Cut: An Act of Sabotage?

In an increasingly connected world, a sudden disruption in communication can be alarming. This is the current reality for Baltic Sea nations, where two undersea communication cables have been mysteriously disabled.

Suspected Human Intervention

CNN has confirmed with a local telecommunications company that a cable connecting Lithuania and Sweden was severed Sunday morning. A second cable, running towards Finland and Germany, is also out of service, though the cause of this outage remains unclear. However, authorities suspect an act of “intentional sabotage”.

Warnings of Potential Russian Sabotage

These incidents follow a U.S. warning in September about an increased risk of Russian sabotage of undersea cables. This alert was based on findings from a joint investigation by Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, and Finnish public broadcasters, which showed that Russia had deployed a fleet of spy ships in northern waters potentially tasked with sabotaging the cables.

Ongoing Investigation

The Foreign Ministers of Finland and Germany have voiced their concerns in a joint statement on Monday, emphasizing the need to protect our shared infrastructure against the threat of “hybrid warfare” by malicious actors. The investigation continues to determine the exact cause of these outages.

Despite these incidents, European nations are not completely cut off from online communications. Data is typically routed through multiple cables to prevent over-reliance on any single one. The Lithuania-Sweden cable, which handles about a third of Lithuania’s internet capacity, is expected to be repaired in the coming weeks, weather permitting.