S.R.
19. 11. 2024, 19.37
Updated: November 19, 2024, 7:53 p.m
The investigation into the damage to the telecommunications cables in the Baltic Sea is still ongoing, but most experts agree that the cables could not have broken without an external force. Was it sabotage, another accident like last October?
As we reported yesterday, the Finnish authorities announced that communication via the C-Lion1 submarine cable, which connects Finland to Germany and continental Europe, has been interrupted. The investigation of the incident is ongoing, and it is not yet known whether this submarine cable has been completely severed or damaged in any other way. Suspicions immediately arose about this, that it could be sabotage. Suspicions are now all the more well-founded, as the Swedish authorities announced today that the Arelion submarine telecommunication cable, which connects Sweden and Lithuania, is also damaged. This cable has also been down since Sunday.
“We can confirm that the interruption of Internet traffic was not caused by an equipment error, but by material damage to the optical cable,” said Sweden’s minister for civil protection Carl-Oskar Bohlin. Similarly, Finnish network operators Cinia said yesterday that the cable had snapped for unknown reasons and that it was most likely the result of an external force. That the cables cannot break without external force was confirmed by the two operators who own the cables.
In the meantime, they contacted Germany, where they are convinced that it is sabotage. As the German Defense Minister pointed out Boris Pistorius, “no one believes that these cables were accidentally severed.” He added that while they don’t know exactly who did it, they have to assume it was sabotage.
Joint investigation
Finnish Defense Minister Antti Häkkänen said today on the sidelines of the meeting in Brussels that the case is still being investigated. He emphasized that they have very good facilities for this kind of investigation, so there is no doubt that they will find out what happened. The C-Lion1 cable connects the Finnish island of Santahamina near Helsinki with Rostock, Germany. It is 1,173 kilometers long and lies on a similar route to the Nord Stream gas pipeline, which was the target of sabotage in September 2022.
Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), according to Finnish public broadcaster Yle, announced today that they have launched an investigation into the cause of the injuries. Head of the Department of Investigations at the NBI Timo Kilpeläinen confirmed that they will establish a joint investigation team with Swedish investigators to investigate both incidents. The Finnish prime minister was more reserved and cautious about the whole thing Petteri Orpowho emphasized today that it is not yet time to draw any conclusions. “It’s not yet possible to say whether it was sabotage, so I’m not jumping to conclusions.” Orpo confirmed that he had already discussed the matter with the German Chancellor Olafom Scholzemthe Swedish Prime Minister Ulfom Kristerssonom and the Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal.
The Finnish Prime Minister also recalled the incident from October last year, when the gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia was damaged. The anchor of a Chinese cargo ship was to blame for those injuries. Experts rule out the possibility that damage to the telecommunications cable could have been caused by an anchor or fishing equipment.
At least four ships with transponders turned off
According to the Marine Traffic website, in the hours before the damage to the Finnish cable, at least four vessels were in the area with their AIS transponders, automatic vessel identification systems used to improve navigational safety and efficiency, switched off. One of these vessels is the Chinese-flagged cargo ship Yi Peng 3. It was not detected on the radars for the whole of Sunday evening and until 1 am on Monday. All this time she was moving around the area near the cables. Meanwhile, the Finnish newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet reports that this Chinese ship is to be followed into Danish waters by the Danish military vessels HDMS Hvidbjoernen and DNK Navy Patrol P525.
The Finnish cable was broken in the afternoon. According to the CEO of Cinia Ari-Jussija Knaapile cable communication was completely cut off at 4:04 p.m. Knaapila also explained that the place where the cable that runs between Sweden and Lithuania is notched is tens of nautical miles away from the place of damage on the Finnish cable. Knaapila is so confident that both cables could not have been damaged in the same incident.
Source: svet24.si
