Germany and Finland have expressed being “deeply concerned” after a subsea cable linking the two countries experienced a “disruption.”
The 1,170 km (730 miles) telecommunications cable, which is under investigation, was cut at a time of heightened tensions with Russia, foreign media outlets report.
The foreign ministers of both countries issued a joint statement: “Our European security is not only under threat from Russia’s aggressive war against Ukraine, but also from the hybrid warfare of malicious actors.”
It should be noted that damage to pipelines in the Baltic Sea in recent years has raised fears of sabotage.
In October 2023, a natural gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia was severely damaged. Finnish officials later stated that the incident was caused by a Chinese container ship dragging its anchor.
German prosecutors are still investigating the explosion of the Nord Stream gas pipelines between Russia and Germany in 2022.
There have been conspiracy theories surrounding that attack, with unconfirmed rumors suggesting that the Ukrainian, Russian, or U.S. government was behind it.
The latest incident involves the C-Lion1 fiber-optic cable that connects the Finnish capital, Helsinki, to the German city of Rostock.
Finnish network operator Cinia stated that all fiber connections to it were interrupted.
“Such damage does not happen in these waters without an external influence,” a Cinia spokesperson was quoted as saying to local media.
Meanwhile, Samuli Bergstrom, a Finnish government cybersecurity expert, stated that the disruption did not affect internet traffic between the two countries, as alternative cable routes were available.
