The severing of two undersea fibre-optic communications cables in the Baltic Sea must be seen as an act of sabotage, although it is still unclear who is responsible, German Defence minister Boris Pistorius said on Tuesday. Two undersea fibre-optic communications cables in the Baltic Sea, including one linking Finland and Germany, were cut between Sunday and Monday.
Two undersea fibre-optic communications cables in the Baltic Sea, including one linking Finland and Germany, were severed, raising suspicions of sabotage by bad actors, countries and companies involved said on Monday.
"No one believes that these cables were cut accidentally. I also don't want to believe in versions that these were anchors that accidentally caused damage over these cables," Pistorius said before a meeting with EU defence ministers in Brussels.
"Therefore we have to state, without knowing specifically who it came from, that it is a 'hybrid' action. And we also have to assume, without knowing it yet, that it is sabotage."
The episode recalled other incidents in the same waterway that authorities have probed as potentially malicious including damage to a gas pipeline and undersea cables last year and the 2022 explosions of the Nord Sea gas pipelines.
(FRANCE 24 with Reuters)
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