Russia’s Silent War: Baltic Cable Attacks Heighten Tensions in Europe

Russia is suspected of orchestrating another major act of sabotage in Europe after two key fiber-optic data cables running below the Baltic Sea were cut off in quick succession earlier this week, government officials said.

A 135-mile internet link connecting Sweden’s Gotland Island and Lithuania stopped working on Sunday morning, and a similar 700-mile-long cable linking Finland and Germany ceased to operate the following night, according to government officials and telecom operators.

Swedish police started a preliminary sabotage investigation on Tuesday with assistance from the coast guard and the armed forces, the country’s police authority said.Western officials said there are indications that Russia was behind the incidents, which they said were similar to other operations resulting from Moscow’s escalating hybrid warfare against NATO countries in Europe.“Nobody believes that these cables were accidentally cut off,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told reporters. “Therefore we must conclude—without yet knowing specifically who was behind it—that this is a hybrid operation.”His statement was echoed by Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen and her German counterpart, Annalena Baerbock. “Our European security is not only threatened by Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine but also by the hybrid warfare of malicious actors,” the two ministers said in a statement. They stopped short of pointing the finger at Moscow, but officials from both countries said Russia was the prime susp…  ect, without revealing any evidence for this suspicion.The preliminary investigation involving Sweden, Finland, Lithuania, Germany and other nations found that the cables were likely cut in Swedish economic waters, where the two cables intersect in a relatively small area, according to two people familiar with the findings.

The damage was near-certain to be a result of human interference rather than caused by any natural phenomena, these people said.

Since the launch of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin has been accused by Western officials of waging a shadow war on European soil. They allege Russia was behind a plot to place incendiary devices on airplanes, instigated arson attacks in the U.K. and the Czech Republic, and ordered sabotage operations on military and industrial installations in Germany.