German officials suspect sabotage in damage of Baltic Sea communication cables

Nov. 19 (UPI) -- German officials said on Tuesday they believe damage to two underwater fiber-optic cables in the Baltic Sea was an act of sabotage, but added they could not speculate beyond that.

On Sunday morning, a 135-mile Internet link between Lithuania and Sweden's Gotland Island was damaged, causing a loss of service, according to the communications company Telia Lietuva.

The second cable, a 746-mile line between Helsinki to the port city of Rostock in Germany, was damaged Monday morning before dawn, according to the telecom company Cinia, and tech officials in Finland.

"These kinds of breaks don't happen in these waters without an outside impact," a spokesperson for Cinia said, according to BBC News.

While the two cable lines do cross each other in the Baltic Sea, investigators believe the breaks happened away from where the intersection.

"No one believes that the cables were accidentally damaged," German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said. "We have to assume, without certain information, that the damage is caused by sabotage."

Finland's Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen and Germany's Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock issued a joint statement over the twin cable incident, promising a thorough investigation.

"The fact that such an incident immediately raises suspicion of international damage speaks volumes about the volatility of our times," they said, according to The Guardian. "Our European security is not only under threat from Russia's war and aggression against Ukraine but also from hybrid warfare by malicious actors."