Europe suspects Russia of deliberate sabotage in the Baltic Sea. First with the rupture of telecommunications cables near Sweden, then of an underwater cable between Finland and Estonia. Berlin speaks of an “urgent alarm signal” and calls on the EU for new sanctions.
The breakdown of a submarine cable between Finland and Estonia on Wednesday, behind which Europeans suspect a act of sabotage of the “Russian ghost fleet”is a “wake-up call” for Berlin, which is pushing for new EU sanctions.
“At an almost monthly rate, ships are currently damaging significant submarine cables in the Baltic Sea. Ship crews leave anchors in the water, drag them for kilometers along the seabed for no apparent reason, and then lose them on the way up,” accuses Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock in a statement to the Funke media group. Mediengruppe, Saturday.
« It’s more than difficult to believe in coincidences anymore. This is an urgent wake-up call for all of us,” adds the head of German diplomacy, who calls for new “European sanctions against the Russian ghost fleet”. This term refers to ships that transport Russian crude oil and petroleum products subject to embargo. In addition to constituting “a major threat to our environment and our security”, this fleet is used by Moscow “to finance its war of aggression in Ukraine”, underlines the minister.
On Christmas Day, the DC connection EstLink 2between Finland and Estonia was disconnected from the network. The suspect vessel, an oil tanker leaving from a Russian port, was boarded by Finland. This incident comes a little more than a month after the rupture of two telecommunications cables in Swedish territorial waters in the Baltic Sea. L’European Union condemned on Thursday “any deliberate destruction of Europe’s essential infrastructure” and announced plans to new sanctions against Russian ships.
EU countries agreed earlier this month to blacklist around 50 additional tankers from the fleet. Discussions are also taking place between NATO partners in order to “better protect the Baltic Sea against hybrid threats”, underlined Annalena Baerbock.
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