Two undersea telecommunications cables in the Baltic Sea have been severed in recent days, including one connecting Finland to Germany and one linking Sweden to Lithuania.
The Finnish state telecom company Cinia reported damage to the C-Lion1 cable, which links the country to Germany, on Monday. The company said a fault in the cable was detected around 4:00 a.m.
Soon after, the Lithuanian company Telia reported damage to the cable between Lithuania and Sweden. According to the company’s head of technology, Andrius Šemeškavičius, the cable was cut on Sunday morning at around 10:00 a.m.
The German and Finnish foreign ministries issued a joint statement saying they were “deeply concerned” about the damaged cables:
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. Our European security is not only under threat from Russia‘s war of aggression against Ukraine, but also from hybrid warfare by malicious actors.