New incident in the Baltic Sea: an “external impact” ruptured submarine telecommunications cables, Germany denounces “sabotage” and “hybrid war”

And “external impact” is necessarily the cause of the cable breakage according to initial analyses. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said on Tuesday that a “sabotage” was certainly at the origin of the damage observed on two telecommunications cables in the Baltic Seabetween Finland and Germany on the one hand, Sweden and Lithuania on the other.

“No one believes these cables were cut by accident […] We must start from the principle […] that it is sabotage”, said Mr. Pistorius, on the sidelines of a meeting of EU defense ministers in Brussels. “I don’t believe in the versions of (boat) anchors which would have accidentally caused damage to these cables”added the German minister.

The German and Finnish governments announced on Monday an investigation into the causes of the rupture of a 1172 km submarine optical fiber cable between Helsinki and Rostock, a port in northern Germany. In a joint statement, they mentioned the “hybrid warfare” and the Russian threat, saying “deeply concerned”.

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On Monday evening, Lithuanian television LRT for its part affirmed, citing the Swedish telecommunications operator Telia, that a telecommunications cable between Sweden and Lithuania was damaged on Sunday.

Several incidents have taken place in recent months in the Baltic area, a maritime zone shared by the Nordic and Baltic countries, Poland and Germany, which are concerned about threats of destabilization attributed to Moscow. Gas pipelines had been targeted, causing significant leaks.