Broken Baltic Sea cables: Pistorius suspects sabotage

Federal Defense Minister Boris Pistorius assumes that data transmission cables in the Baltic Sea were intentionally damaged. One must assume that it is a case of sabotage, said the SPD politician on the sidelines of a meeting with his EU counterparts in Brussels. However, there is no evidence of this yet. He emphasized: “Nobody believes that these cables were accidentally cut.”

Pistorius added: “We therefore have to state – without knowing specifically who it comes from – that it is a hybrid action.”

The Finnish state-owned company Cinia had previously announced that a defect had been discovered in the C-Lion1 undersea data cable between Finland and Germany and that communication connections via the cable had been interrupted as a result.

The Finnish Foreign Ministry and the Foreign Office in Berlin are “deeply concerned.” Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) is in contact with the Finnish authorities.

Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) said in Berlin: “We take this high threat situation very, very seriously.” The damage to the cable occurred in Swedish waters. “We as authorities are not yet involved, but we have offered help to support.”

C-Lion1 runs 1,173 kilometers from the Finnish capital Helsinki to Rostock in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, partly along the same route as the Nord Stream pipelines that were destroyed two years ago. The cable went into operation in spring 2016 and is the only undersea data cable that runs directly from Finland to Central Europe.

A spokesman for the Swedish communications company Telia also confirmed that a cable between Sweden and Lithuania had been damaged.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and the explosions caused by sabotage on the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea the following September, the situation of critical infrastructure, especially in the Baltic Sea, has become the focus of the public and especially NATO.