Two undersea communications cables in the Baltic Sea have been disconnected and at least one appears to have been physically severed. cnn confirmation received of a local telecommunications company that a cable between Lithuania and Sweden was cut on Sunday morning. A second cable, about 60 to 65 miles from the first, routes communications between Finland and Germany. The cause of that outage has not yet been determined, but officials suspect “intentional damage.”
The cuts follow a September warning of the United States about an increased risk of Russian “sabotage” of submarine cables. That came after a joint research Public broadcasters in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland reported that Russia had deployed a fleet of spy ships in Nordic waters. They were reportedly part of a program designed to sabotage the cables (and the wind farms).
This does not leave European nations completely without online communications, as data is usually routed over multiple cables to avoid over-reliance on a single one.
Cinia, the state-controlled Finnish company overseeing the second cable, said it has not yet been determined what caused the outage as it has not yet been physically inspected. However, the sudden blackout suggests that it was also cut off by an external force.
The foreign ministers of Finland and Germany published a joint declaration on Mondays. “We are deeply concerned about the cut submarine cable connecting Finland and Germany in the Baltic Sea,” they wrote. “The fact that such an incident immediately raises suspicions of intentional harm says a lot about the volatility of our times. A thorough investigation is underway. Our European security is not only threatened by Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, but also by hybrid warfare carried out by malicious actors. Safeguarding our shared critical infrastructure is vital to our security and the resilience of our societies.”
The Lithuania-Sweden cable, which handles about a third of Lithuania's internet capacity, is expected to be repaired “in the coming weeks,” and the weather could dictate the precise timing.
