Pistorius responds to damage of cables in the Baltic Sea

On the morning of November 17, unknown people cut an Internet communication cable located in the Baltic Sea. Germany declared sabotage.

This was announced by German Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius before a meeting with EU colleagues in Brussels, as Reuters reports.

Damage of cables in the Baltic Sea

Pistorius claimed that the damage to two underwater telecommunications cables in the Baltic Sea should be considered sabotage. According to him, there is no evidence, yet, that would point to any specific country.

"We are forced to report, without knowing specifically from whom this comes, that this is a "hybrid" action. And we must also assume, without knowing this yet, that this is sabotage," Pistorius told reporters.

The cables that were cut on November 17 provide Internet connectivity between Scandinavia and Central Europe. One of them connects Finland and Germany, and the other connects Sweden and Lithuania.

"Nobody believes that these cables were cut by accident. I don't want to believe the version that these were ship anchors that accidentally caused the damage," the German Minister of Defense noted.

A spokesman for the Lithuanian Armed Forces said that regional NATO members were jointly assessing what happened, and added that naval forces had stepped up patrols.

It should be noted that the United States warned a few weeks ago that Russia would conduct potential sabotage operations at these critical facilities.

As a reminder, damage to the cable in the Baltic Sea led to a decrease in Internet bandwidth. Despite the malfunction, communication for users was restored.

Previously, we reported that NATO is strengthening defenses in strategically important areas of the Baltic and Black Seas. This is necessary to deter potential Russian aggression.