Disruption of two submarine cables in Baltic Sea sparks warnings of possible ‘hybrid warfare’

Two undersea internet cables in the Baltic Sea have suddenly been disrupted, according to local telecommunications companies, amid new warnings about possible Russian interference in global undersea infrastructure.

A spokesperson for telecommunications company Telia Lithuania confirmed to CNN that the communication cable between Lithuania and Sweden was cut around 10:00 local time on Sunday morning.

Telia Lithuania spokesman Audrius Stasiulaitis told CNN that the company’s monitoring systems were able to tell that there was an outage due to traffic disruption and that the cause was likely physical damage to the cable. “We can confirm that the interruption in internet traffic was not caused by equipment failure but by physical damage to the fiber optic cable.”

Another cable connecting Finland and Germany was also disrupted, according to Cinia, the state-controlled Finnish company that operates the link. The only direct connection of its kind between Finland and Central Europe, the C-Lion cable stretches for approximately 1,200 kilometers (730 miles), alongside other key pieces of infrastructure, including gas pipelines and power cables.

The incidents occurred after Sweden and Finland, two of the affected countries, updated their guidance for citizens. how to survive in war. Millions of households in the Nordic countries will receive booklets with instructions on how to prepare for the effects of military conflicts, communications blackouts and power outages.

both countries joined NATO In the last two years after Russia began its large-scale invasion of Ukraine.

CNN’s analysis of subsea routes shows that the disrupted area along the Finland-Germany cable is approximately 60 to 65 miles from the severed Lithuania-Sweden cable.

It is unclear what exactly caused the failure in the C-Lion cable; Cinia said in a statement that the issue is still being investigated. Reuters reported that a physical inspection had not yet been carried out, citing the company’s chief executive, Ari-Jussi Knaapila, as saying at a press conference on Monday that the sudden outage implied that the cable had been cut by an external force.

Foreign ministers of Finland and Germany made a joint statement expression On Monday evening, they said they were “deeply concerned” by the severed C-Lion cable and raised the possibility of “hybrid warfare”.

“The fact that such an incident immediately raises suspicions of intentional harm speaks volumes about the volatility of our times. The statement said that a thorough investigation is ongoing. “Our European security is at risk not only because of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, but also because of the hybrid war of malicious actors.” is also under threat.”

Fear of submarine sabotage

The USA recently warned It was stated that Russian military activities around important submarine cables had increased. Two US officials told CNN in September that the US believes Russia is now more likely to conduct potential sabotage operations on these critical pieces of infrastructure.

The warning then came joint investigation It was reported by the public broadcasters of Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland in April 2023 that Russia has a fleet of suspected spy ships operating in Scandinavian waters as part of a program of potential sabotage of underwater cables and wind farms in the region.

The extent of disruption from Cinia’s C-Lion fault, which emerged on Monday, is unclear. To avoid excessive dependence on a single connection, the most important data streams are often routed over several different cables.

Cinia said in a statement on Monday evening that a repair ship was ready to go to the location of the fault. He stated that they do not know how long the repair will take, but submarine cables usually take five to 15 days.

Lithuanian state media was the first to report the outage between Lithuania and Sweden, quoting Telia Lithuania’s chief technology officer Andrius Šemeškevičius as saying the cable handles about a third of Lithuania’s internet capacity. Capacity has been restored since the outage.

The cable is operated by Arelion, a Swedish telecommunications company. Company spokesman Martin Sjögren confirmed there was damage to the BCS East-West link and said the company was in contact with Sweden’s military and civil authorities regarding the incident. He said the cable connects Gotland, Sweden, with Šventoji, Lithuania.

He added that the problem was detected on Sunday during routine 24/7 monitoring of the company’s network and that the cable is expected to be repaired within the next few weeks, depending on weather conditions.

Cinia did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for more details. CNN has reached out to the foreign ministries of Sweden and Lithuania for comment.

This story has been updated with additional developments.

CNN’s Jim Sciutto and Sana Noor Haq contributed reporting.

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