Sweden detects signs of damage to another submarine cable in Baltic Sea
The Nordbalt cable, which runs between Sweden and Lithuania in the Baltic Sea, shows signs of damage from an anchor. Sweden suspects a Chinese ship recruited by Russian special services.
This was stated by Swedish Defense Minister Carl-Oscar Bolin, Censor.NET reports with reference to LRT.
According to him, the damage was probably caused by the Chinese ship Yi Peng 3. The ship severed and damaged cables between Sweden and Lithuania, Germany and Finland on November 17 and 18 while anchored about 160 km offshore.
Investigators are investigating the incident and believe that the vessel did so intentionally, as the captain was recruited by Russian special services.
On December 25, one of the electric cables between Estonia and Finland was cut by the Eagle S tanker, which is suspected to be part of Russia's "shadow fleet."
Bolin said that all these incidents could be related to the disconnection of the Baltic states from the Belarusian-Russian power grid in February.
"What the Swedish media are reporting shows that we cannot believe that what is happening in the Baltic Sea is accidental. We must take these cases of sabotage or attempted sabotage of this infrastructure very seriously. And this shows that NATO's rapid response is necessary to protect the interests of our consumers and indeed our entire infrastructure, as well as the electricity market and price stability," Lithuanian Deputy Energy Minister Arnoldas Pikžirnis commented on the incident.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said on Sunday that his country is not at war, but it is not living in peacetime either.
He added that Sweden is providing resources to NATO forces for the first time, and for the first time, NATO forces will monitor the Baltic Sea and the entire region due to the growing threat to infrastructure.
To recap, on December 25, the Eagle S tanker, which probably belongs to the Russian shadow fleet, damaged the Estlink 2 electric cable between Finland and Estonia and four telecommunications cables in the Gulf of Finland with its anchor.
In November 2024, a telecommunications cable between Sweden, Lithuania, Finland, and Germany was severed.
In October 2023, the Balticconnector gas pipeline and cables were damaged by the Newnew Polarbear.
