Germany suspects “sabotage” as European governments probe recent rupture of Baltic Sea telecom cables

Germany’s Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told journalists in Brussels earlier today that recent damage to two underwater telecommunications cables in the Baltic Sea is assumed to be the result of sabotage.

“No one believes that these cables were cut accidentally,” Reuters quoted the minister as saying. “We have to assume, without knowing it yet, that it is sabotage,” Pistorius added.

The potential sabotage is under investigation by Sweden and Lithuania, according to a report from Lithuania’s LRT news network. Swedish authorities said that two undersea cables were damaged on Nov. 17: one linking Sweden and Lithuania, and the other connecting Finland and Germany.

Germany and Finland have also launched their own investigations into the incident. “Our European security is not only under threat from Russia‘s war of aggression against Ukraine, but also from hybrid warfare by malicious actors. Safeguarding our shared critical infrastructure is vital to our security and the resilience of our societies,” read a joint statement issued by the foreign ministries of the two countries.

A representative of the Swedish telecommunications company Telia Lietuva told LRT that the case was serious, as the Lithuania-Sweden and Germany-Finland cables intersect:

“Since both are damaged, it is clear that this was not an accidental dropping of one of the ship’s anchors, but something more serious could be going on.”

On Nov. 18, Cinia, the operator of the C-Lion1 communication cable linking Finland and Germany along the Baltic Sea floor, reported a rupture in the line. Repairs are expected to take up to 15 days. The C-Lion1 cable, launched in 2016, is located several hundred meters from Russia’s Nord Stream gas pipeline, which was damaged by an explosion in 2022.

Finnish open source intelligence (OSINT) analyst Emil Kastehelmi told The Insider that the C-Lion1 rupture does not appear to be a routine accident and that sabotage may be a possible explanation.

“At the moment it cannot be said what has happened, and if Russia is somehow involved. However, Russians have done various sabotage, hybrid, and cyber operations against European countries in recent years, so it can't be ruled out either,” he said.