Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, quoted by the Danish press agency Ritzau, stated on Wednesday, November 20, that she would not be surprised if the breakage of two data cables in the Baltic Sea turned out to be intentional. The day before, six European countries, including France, accused Russia on Tuesday of carrying out hybrid attacks. “unprecedented in its variety and scale” against Ukraine’s allied NATO and EU countries.
“This is ridiculous given the lack of response to Ukraine’s sabotage activities in the Baltic Sea”Russian presidential spokesman Dmitri Peskov responded on Wednesday, referring to the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines in September 2022, of which Moscow accused kyiv.
In forty-eight hours, on Sunday and Monday, two telecommunications cables were damaged in the Baltic Sea. “C-Lion1,” a 1,172-kilometer underwater cable linking Helsinki to Rostock, a Baltic Sea port in northeast Germany, broke on Monday, according to its operator, the Finnish technology group Cinia. This break, located south of the island of Öland in Swedish waters, about 700 kilometers from Helsinki, caused the cutting of all fiber connections of this cable.
On Sunday morning, the “Arelion”, another telecommunications cable linking the Swedish island of Gotland to Lithuania, was damaged, according to Audrius Stasiulaitis, spokesman for the Lithuanian subsidiary of the Swedish operator Telia. Internet traffic was rerouted via other international links.
On Tuesday, Boris Pistorius, the German defense minister, said that “No one believes these cables were cut by accident.”. I don’t believe in anchor versions [de bateaux] which would have accidentally caused damage to these cables”he added.
Swedish police and prosecutors have announced the opening of an investigation into “sabotage”. “The preliminary investigation is ongoing and is only in its early stages.”declared the prosecutor Henrik Söderman in charge of the case, quoted in a press release.
According to Carl-Oskar Bohlin, Swedish Minister of Civil Defense, quoted by the TV4 channel, “The Swedish Armed Forces and Coast Guard, through their knowledge of the maritime situation, detected vessel movements corresponding in time and space to the interruptions that occurred”.
The movements of “Yi Peng 3” in question
A Chinese ship, Yi Peng 3which left the Baltic Sea early on Tuesday, followed by the Danish navy, after passing through the Russian port of Ust-Luga, 110 kilometers west of St. Petersburg, could also have played a role in both incidents. According to Finnish public broadcasting, on Sunday, hours before the cables were damaged, the navigation beacon transmitters of at least four ships in the area were periodically turned off. The beacon signal Yi Peng 3 It disappeared throughout Sunday afternoon until around 1 a.m. Monday, while sailing near the cable.
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The Swedish television channel SVT points out that following the incidents in the Baltic Sea, the Chinese ship is being monitored by warships of NATO countries, including the Danish Navy, and is currently detained off the coast of Denmark.
Tensions in the Baltic Sea have increased since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. In October 2023, an underwater gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia was damaged, as the investigation later showed, by the anchor of a Chinese cargo ship that had continued its journey.
These incidents also recall the sabotage in September 2022 of the Nord Stream gas pipelines, which has not yet been clarified. In August, the Wall Street Journal implicated the former Ukrainian chief of staff, an accusation described as “absolute nonsense” through Kyiv.
