Swedish Investigation into Baltic Cable Sabotage

Swedish authorities are probing a new suspected act of sabotage involving an undersea telecom cable in the Baltic Sea.

Finnish telecom firm Cinia announced on Friday that it had detected minor damage in Swedish waters on its C-Lion1 fibre-optic link between Finland and Germany—marking the third incident affecting this cable since November of last year.

“The preliminary investigation relates to suspected sabotage,” said Swedish police spokesperson Mathias Rutegard.

In recent months, various seabed infrastructures—ranging from gas pipelines and power cables to fibre-optic lines—have been attacked across the Baltic, likely due to merchant ships dragging their anchors. This surge in incidents prompted NATO to initiate Baltic Sentry, a naval protection operation that deploys frigates, submarines, maritime patrol aircraft, and drones.

On Friday, the European Commission declared its intention to propose increased surveillance of undersea cables and to establish a fleet of vessels capable of executing emergency repairs.

A joint statement issued last month by the leaders of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Sweden stated: “Russia’s use of the so-called shadow fleet poses a particular threat to the maritime and environmental security in the Baltic Sea region and globally. This reprehensible practice also threatens the integrity of undersea infrastructure, increases risks connected to sea-dumped chemical munitions, and significantly supports funding of Russia’s illegal war of aggression against Ukraine.”