Germany and Finland said they were “deeply concerned” after the undersea cable connecting the two countries was severed.
The rupture of a 1,170km (730 mile) telecommunications cable – which is under investigation – comes at a time of rising tensions with Russia.
The two countries’ foreign ministers said in a joint statement: “Our European security is threatened not only from Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine but also from hybrid warfare by malicious actors.”
Damage to pipelines in the Baltic Sea has raised concerns about sabotage in recent years.
Additionally, a 218km (135-mile) internet link between Lithuania and Sweden’s Gotland Island also lost service on Sunday morning, a Swedish telecommunications company said.
In October 2023, the natural gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia was completed. severely damaged. Finnish officials later said that the incident was caused by a Chinese container ship pulling anchor.
And German prosecutors are still investigating Nord Stream gas pipeline explosion between Russia and Germany in 2022.
There have been many conspiracy theories surrounding that attack, with unconfirmed rumors that the Ukrainian, Russian or American governments were behind it.
The latest incident involves the C-Lion1 fiber optic cable connecting the Finnish capital Helsinki and the German city of Rostock, which went out of service at around 02:00 GMT on Monday.
Finnish network operator Cinia said all fiber connections therein had been cut.
“Fictures of this type do not occur in these waters without external influence,” a Cinia spokesperson told local media.
Samuli Bergstrom, a cybersecurity expert for the Finnish government, said the incident did not affect internet traffic between the two countries because other cable routes were available.
