Reports have sparked suspicions of Russian interference days after a Russian spy ship was escorted out of Irish waters
Services on two undersea internet cables in the Baltic Sea have been suddenly disrupted.
An undersea cable between Lithuania and Sweden was cut on Sunday morning around 10:00 am local time, according to Telia Lithuania. The problem was picked up by the operator’s 24×7 monitoring systems when traffic was disrupted. The cable accounts for about a third of Lithuania’s internet capacity, the operator said, and that capacity has been restored since the disruption.
A Telia Lithuania spokesperson, Audrius Stasiulaitis, told CNN, “We can confirm that the internet traffic disruption was not caused by equipment failure but by physical damage to the fibre optic cable.”
The cable is operated by Arelion, a Swedish telecommunications company which reportedly is in contact with Sweden’s military and civil authorities about the incident. The cable had connected Gotland, Sweden and Šventoji, Lithuania, a spokesperson said.
Another cable linking Finland and Germany was also damaged, according to Cinia, the state-controlled Finnish company that runs the link. The C-Lion cable is the only direct connection of its type between Finland and Central Europe. It is almost 1,200 km long and runs alongside other critical infrastructure, including gas pipes and power cables.
The cause of the disruption is still under investigation but Cinia’s CEO, Ari-Jussi Knaapila, told a press conference on Monday that the sudden outage implied that the cable was cut by an outside force. This was reported by Reuters. As a repair ship prepares to explore and address the disruption, traffic flows have been directed via other routes.
CNN reckons the damage to the Finnish-German cable is roughly 65 miles from where the Lithuanian-Swedish cable that was cut.
Millions of households in Sweden and Finland have just received booklets on how to survive a war. It warns them, among other things, to prepare for communications and power cuts as well as what items to stockpile. The two countries joined NATO since Russia invaded Uktraine.
The foreign ministers of Finland and Germany said in a joint statement on Monday evening that they were “deeply concerned” about the severed C-Lion cable, and raised the possibility of “hybrid warfare.”
“The fact that such an incident immediately raises suspicions of intentional damage speaks volumes about the volatility of our times. A thorough investigation is underway,” the statement said. “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 incidents have fuelled further concerns about Russian interference in global undersea infrastructure. A joint investigation by the public broadcasters of Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland reported in April 2023 that Russia had a fleet of suspected spy ships operating in Nordic waters. They said this was part of a programme to potentially sabotage underwater cables and wind farms.
Just days ago, a Russian intelligence-gathering vessel was escorted out of Irish waters by the Irish navy. The Irish Times said it was seen flying drones in the Irish Sea, about three miles from the location of undersea cables.
The US also recently warned that it had detected increased Russian military activity around key undersea cables. Two US officials told CNN in September that the US believed Russia was now more likely to carry out potential sabotage operations on these critical pieces of infrastructure