Damage to communications cables between new NATO members Finland and Sweden and their alliance partners Germany and Lithuania was likely sabotage, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said on Tuesday.
“No one believes that these cables were cut accidentally,” Pistorius said in Brussels during a meeting of EU defense ministers to discuss the various threats facing the European Union.
The damage to communications cables was reported in the Baltic Sea on Monday by the Finnish state-owned company Cinia.
Cinia announced that a defect had been discovered in the C-Lion1 submarine data cable between Finland and Germany, causing communication links via the cable to be interrupted.
The Finnish Foreign Ministry and the German Foreign Ministry both said they were “deeply concerned”.
Previous incidents and high tensions between NATO allies and Russia in the Baltic Sea region led to immediate speculation about the possibility of sabotage.
The C-Lion1 runs 1,173 kilometers from the Finnish capital Helsinki to the German port city of Rostock on the Baltic Sea and partly follows the same route as the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines that were destroyed two years ago.
The cable went into service in early 2016 and is the only submarine data cable running directly from Finland to Central Europe.
Cinia officials said they believe the cable broke at the bottom of the Baltic Sea and was severed by an external force, such as an anchor or a bottom trawl.
At a company press conference it was stated that the incident took place in Swedish waters outside the busiest shipping areas.
It is not yet clear how long it will take to solve the problem on C-Lion1.
