It runs over 1,200 kilometers, the distance between Lille and Nice. The only submarine fiber optic communications cable linking Finland to Europe was mysteriously cut on Monday, November 18. Its operator, the Finnish technology group Cinia, announces that it has detected a “default” which seems to come from“an external force”. Berlin and Helsinki, which call themselves “deeply concerned”, promise a “thorough investigation”.
If the causes are not yet clear, the trail of sabotage is advanced, and the shadow of Moscow hovers above the water. Here’s what we know so far.
The cable was cut at mid-length
Ce submarine cable called C-Lion1 was commissioned in 2016. 1,173 kilometers long, it connects Helsinki, the Finnish capital, to Rostock, a Baltic Sea port located in northeast Germany. “A fault was detected on the C-Lion1 submarine cable, between Finland and Germany, on November 18, 2024. Due to this fault, the services provided by the C-Lion1 cable are interrupted,” the Finnish operator Cinia initially announced in a press release. Later that day he clarified that the infrastructure had been severed at its mid-length, in Sweden’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), in a “sector far from maritime traffic”.
The exact nature of the damage is not yet known, but the repair ship is ready to go to the site. “GGenerally, for marine cables, the repair time is 5 to 15 days.”the calculus of Cinia.
The C-Lion1 cable is not the only one to have been damaged in recent days. Another submarine telecommunications cable, linking Sweden to Lithuania, was damaged on Sunday, the Swedish Minister of Civil Defense told AFP on Tuesday, confirming information from the Swedish telecommunications company Telia. Consequence, “Internet bandwidth was reduced by a third due to the incident”specifies Andrius Semeskevicius, the company’s technical director, to the Lithuanian television channel LRT.
The causes are not yet known
The Finnish Security and Intelligence Service (Supo) believes that it is “too early” to determine the cause of the rupture. A spokesperson points out that “200 submarine cable ruptures occur every year around the world” and that they can entirely be linked to “human activity, such as fishing or anchoring”.
The weather hypothesis is also put forward. “Disturbances occur from time to time and can have various causes. For example, cables are susceptible to weather and shipping damage.”explains Samuli Bergström, head of communications at the Finnish National Cybersecurity Center Traficom, interviewed by the public news site Yle.
The possibility of seismic activity has also been mentioned, but the Institute of Seismology at the University of Helsinki says it is not aware of any unusual observations that could indicate a possible explosion.
A “thorough investigation” is underway, assure Berlin and Helsinki
Several investigations have been opened, including one launched by the company Cinia. But the consequences are also diplomatic. In a joint statement, the German and Finnish governments say “deeply concerned” and evoke the “hybrid warfare and the Russian threat. “A thorough investigation is underway, our European security is not only threatened by Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, but also by hybrid wars waged by malicious actors”write the foreign ministers of the two countries in a joint declaration transmitted by Berlin.
“No one believes that these cables were cut by accident (…) We must assume (…) that this is sabotage”declared for his part the German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius on Tuesday on the sidelines of a meeting of EU defense ministers in Brussels. “I don’t believe in the anchor versions [de bateaux] which would have accidentally caused damage to these cables”he added.
Coincidence? The largest NATO artillery exercise ever organized in Europe has just been launched on Finnish soil, less than 200 km from the border with Russia. In total, 5,000 artillerymen from 28 countries are engaged in this “Dynamic Front 25” operation which takes place until the end of the month.
Russia is suspected of sabotage
If the Finnish authorities are cautious about the causes of the rupture, others do not hesitate to suspect Russia. “This is probably the result of an intentional act”says Tapio Frantti, professor of cybersecurity at the University of Jyväskylä, still to the Finnish public media Yle. “When a cable breaks, you wonder why this happened and who could have a motive to do something like this.”
“In terms of probabilities, this is on the intentionality side.”
Tapio Frantti, professor of cybersecurityto Finnish public media Yle
In the corridors of Cinia, too, we have some doubts. “Voluntary cutting of the submarine cable is currently not an excluded option”said Henri Kronlund, the company’s public relations director.
“Given the strategic importance of this cable as well as Russia’s undisguised habit of lurking around the submarine cables of NATO member countries, it is possible that Moscow attempted sabotagewrites analyst Louis Duclos on X. Russian ships are regularly observed circling above these cables.”
Precedents have already taken place in the region
This is not the first incident of this type in Northern Europe. In October 2023, the Balticconnector gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia as well as several communication cables were damaged after being hit by the anchor of the Chinese container ship Newnew Polar Bear. At the time, investigators believed that the damage had probably been caused by a “mechanical force” of magnitude.
In 2021, part of the cable off the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard was damaged. Owned by Space Norway, the operational arm of the Norwegian Space Agency, the infrastructure “allows in particular to transport data from Svalsat (co-operated by Space Norway and Kongsberg), the largest satellite reception station in the world”, recalls the specialized site Mer et Marine.
Two months earlier, in November 2020, part of the cable connecting the Lofoten-Vesteralen scientific observatory, in the Norwegian archipelagos of the same name, was in turn damaged, undoubtedly also following trawling. “If the main use of this cable is scientific, it is also used by the Norwegian army”specifies Mer et Marine.
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