Germany’s defense minister said damage to two fiber-optic cables on the sea floor appeared deliberate, but a culprit was not known.
Germany’s defense minister on Tuesday called the severing of two fiber-optic cables in the Baltic Sea an act of sabotage aimed at European countries that are supporting Ukraine in its war against Russia.
One undersea cable connecting Finland and Germany was cut on Monday and the other, which runs between Lithuania and Sweden, was severed late Sunday. The damage disrupted some data transfers but did not endanger the internet connection or security of any of the countries, authorities said.
“Nobody believes that these cables were severed by accident,” Germany’s minister of defense, Boris Pistorius, told reporters ahead of a meeting of European security officials in Brussels.
He did not believe that either of the cables could have been damaged by ships accidentally dropping their anchors. “Therefore we must state — without concrete knowledge of who was responsible — that this was a hybrid action,” he said. “And we must assume, without being certain, that this was sabotage.”
Concerns have been rising in Europe that Russia may wage a hybrid war against it in retaliation for helping Ukraine defend itself since a full-scale invasion began in February 2022. Russian ships have been reported in the Baltic and North Seas near areas where critical infrastructure lies beneath the waters.
The foreign ministries of Finland and Germany issued a joint statement late Monday expressing concern about the severed cable between their countries.