VILNIUS: The devastating of two underwater telco cables in the Baltic Sea may be presumed to be destroy, Germany said on Tuesday, while Lithuania’s military forces boosted security of its waters in reply.
” No one believes that these cords were cut unknowingly. Before a meeting with EU colleagues in Brussels, German defence minister Boris Pistorius stated,” I do n’t want to believe in theories that these were ship anchors that unintentionally caused the damage.”
Between Sunday and Monday, two fiber-optic cables, one of which connects Sweden to Lithuania and the other of which connects Sweden to Lithuania, stopped working. This brings up past security lapses in the active lake caused by the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
” We have to express, without knowing precisely who it came from, that it is a’ cross’ activity. And we also have to believe, without knowing it already, that it is sabotage”, Pistorius told reporters.
According to a spokesperson for the Ukrainian armed forces, provincial Nato members were jointly evaluating what had happened, adding that marine forces had increased their patrols.
Lithuania’s Prosecutor General’s Office was gathering information to determine if a proper inspection may be launched, a spokeswoman said.
The Swedish Post and Telecom Authority said it was collaborating with another government to collect information. It declined to comment more.
The owners of the two wires both claimed that it was not yet known what had caused the interruptions.
” It’s not a limited damage, it’s total damage”, said a spokesperson for Arelion, owner and operator of the wire linking Lithuania and Sweden. User of the wire that connects Finland and Germany, Cindy Quinia, stated that it was impossible to identify the potential cause of the leak before the repairs had begun. According to the organization, these fixes typically take between 5 and 15 days.
Ruben Brekelmans, the Dutch defense minister, made it clear he had no specific information to blame, but that” we are seeing increasing activity, especially from Russia, on our waters, aimed at spy and perhaps even damage of our vital system.”
The Nord Stream gas pipelines was destroyed in the most well-known European damage event in 2022, accelerating Europe’s transition to other energy sources following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
No one has accepted role for those explosions. US and German media reported that pro-Ukrainian players perhaps had played a role, despite some American officials initially blaming Moscow, which Vladimir Putin later dismissed as “idiotic.”
