A Russian underwater cable in the Baltic Sea has been damaged by an unspecified external impact, Tass reported on Saturday, citing the telecommunications provider PJSC Rostelecom.
Restoration work is underway and the incident has had no impact on subscribers so far, according to the state-owned company.
Finnish media reported earlier that the nation’s coast guard was supervising repair work to a telecom cable in the Gulf of Finland by a Russian ship. It’s unclear when the damage took place.
Instances of cable damage in the Baltic Sea have become more frequent, with Sweden, Norway, and Finland reporting similar incidents over the past several months.
That’s raised worries in the region about security of the subsea energy and data infrastructure. While officials so far can’t pinpoint evidence of sabotage, numerous officials have raised the prospect of malicious activity.
NATO recently increased its surveillance operations following suspected sabotage of undersea cables between Finland and Estonia.
With thousands of vessels passing through it every day, the Baltic Sea is one of the world’s busiest shipping routes. Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 — and with it, international energy sanctions against the Kremlin — Western nations expressed concerns that the so-called shadow fleet shipping Russian oil from Baltic ports could cause security breaches and environmental risks due to the age of the vessels and insufficient insurance.
Finland is currently probing the most recent incident, from December, when the vessel Eagle S — identified as a member of the shadow fleet — allegedly pulled up four data cables and a power link from the seabed with its anchor on Dec. 25.
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