Saturday, 23 November 2024

Two Undersea Internet Cables Severed Amid Fears Of Russian Sabotage: Reports


In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin delivers his address in Moscow on March 23, 2024, the day after a gun attack on the Crocus City Hall in Krasnogorsk. Camouflaged assailants opened fire at the packed Crocus City Hall in Moscow's northern suburb of Krasnogorsk on March 22, 2024, evening ahead of a concert by Soviet-era rock band Piknik in the deadliest attack in Russia for at least a decade. Russia on March 23, 2024, said it had arrested 11 people - including four gunmen - over the attack on a Moscow concert hall claimed by Islamic State, as the death toll rose to over 100 people.PAVEL BYRKIN / POOL / AFP via Getty Images

Two undersea internet cables appear to have been severed in Europe this week as officials warn of potential Russian sabotage against Western infrastructure as it looks for an advantage in its war against Ukraine.

A nearly 750-mile cable connecting Germany and Finland, which just joined NATO last year, stopped working during the early morning hours on Monday.

“We are deeply concerned about the severed undersea cable connecting Finland and Germany in the Baltic Sea,” the two countries said in a joint statement. “The fact that such an incident immediately raises suspicions of intentional damage speaks volumes about the volatility of our times.”

The countries said that an investigation was already underway and warned that Europe’s security was “not only under threat from Russia‘s war of aggression against Ukraine, but also from hybrid warfare by malicious actors.”

“Safeguarding our shared critical infrastructure is vital to our security and the resilience of our societies,” they added.

A 135-mile undersea internet cable stopped working on Sunday that connected Lithuania and Sweden, which just joined NATO earlier this year.

Lithuania’s Telia Lietuva Chief Technology Officer Andrius Šemeškevičius said: “The cable was cut on Sunday morning, at around 10:00.”

Carl-Oskar Bohlin, Sweden’s minister of civil defence, told the media on Monday that it was critical that authorities quickly learn why the two cables were no longer working.

There was no official indication that sabotage was to blame as investigators still worked to locate the exact area where the cables were cut.

However, given the rugged design of the cables, human activity was almost certainly to blame for the damage, experts said. The fact that two separate cables were damaged in the span of less than 24 hours — each of which connected two different NATO members — raised fears of sabotage.

Related: Western Intel Officials: Russia Behind Arson Attack At German Factory


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