Germany suspects Baltic Sea cable damage is 'sabotage'

Germany said it believed that recent damage to communications cables in the Baltic Sea was "sabotage", as Sweden reported damage to a second underwater link.

The severing of cables between Finland and Germany and from Sweden to Lithuania was a "clear sign that something is going on", German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said on the sidelines of a meeting of EU ministers in Brussels.

"Nobody believes that these cables were accidentally severed," Pistorius said.

"We have to say, without knowing exactly who it came from, that this is a hybrid action. We also have to assume, without knowing it yet, that it was sabotage," he said.

On Monday, Finnish operator Cinia reported that a cable connecting Helsinki and the German port of Rostock had been cut for unknown reasons.

Germany and Finland subsequently said they had launched a probe into the damage, warning of the threat of "hybrid warfare".

Protecting infrastructure

On Tuesday, officials in Stockholm said another cable connecting Sweden and Lithuania was also "not working".

"Relevant Swedish authorities are investigating the events," Sweden's Minister for Civil Defence Carl-Oskar Bohlin told AFP.

Pistorius said Germany would need to "pay particular attention to protecting our infrastructure", amid heightened tensions with Russia after its military offensive in Ukraine.

"We must protect ourselves better and be able to react quickly, competently and appropriately to such attacks," he said