Swedish authorities have seized a vessel suspected of damaging an information cable operating beneath the Baltic Sea in Latvia.
Prosecutors mentioned an preliminary investigation pointed to sabotage and a probe involving police, the Swedish Military and Coast Guard was launched.
On Sunday, Latvia’s navy reported that two ships have been noticed within the space the place the injury occurred.
The obvious assault comes lower than a month after NATO launched a brand new mission within the Baltic Sea in response to repeated assaults on submarine energy and telecommunications cables, a few of which Russia has blamed.
Latvian Prime Minister Evika Selina mentioned her nation was working carefully with Sweden and NATO in response to the incident.
The cable belongs to Latvia’s state broadcaster, LVRTC, which mentioned in a press release that there had been “interruptions in information transmission providers” however that finish customers could be largely unaffected.
Earlier this month, NATO launched its new “Baltic Sentry” mission, after a number of cables beneath the Baltic Sea have been broken or severed in 2024.
NATO chief Mark Rutte mentioned the mission would contain extra patrol planes, warships and drones.
While Russia has not been instantly recognized because the perpetrator within the cable injury, Rutte mentioned NATO would step up monitoring of Moscow’s “shadow fleet” – ships with out clear possession used to move embargoed oil merchandise.
Rutte mentioned there was “trigger for critical concern” concerning the injury to infrastructure, including that NATO would reply completely to future incidents, with elevated boarding of suspicious vessels and, if crucial, their seizure.
Finnish police late final yr mentioned they have been investigating whether or not a Russian ship was concerned in sabotaging an electrical energy cable operating between Finland and Estonia.
