An undersea telecommunications cable in the Baltic Sea was damaged on Friday, with Latvian investigators boarding a ship on Sunday in connection with the incident, the country’s state police have announced.
This incident occurs as the Baltic Sea region remains on high alert following a series of power cable, telecom link, and gas pipeline disruptions since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
NATO has bolstered its presence with frigates, aircraft, and naval drones. The cable, connecting Sventoji in Lithuania to Liepaja in Latvia over 65 km (40 miles), has an as-yet-undetermined cause of damage, according to Lithuania’s National Crisis Management Centre.
“At this time, neither the vessel nor its crew is detained, they are cooperating with the police, and active work continues to clarify the circumstances,” Latvian police said on X.
Latvia’s Prime Minister Evika Silina said the damage had occurred near Liepaja.
“The incident has not affected Latvian communications users,” she wrote on X.
The latest incident is made public five days after Finnish police seized a cargo vessel en route from Russia to Israel on suspicion of sabotaging an undersea telecoms cable running from Helsinki across the Gulf of Finland to Estonia.