Damaged Baltic Sea data cable: Pistorius assumes sabotage

According to German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, the failure of two data cables in the Baltic Sea is probably due to sabotage. It must be assumed that the two submarine cables were deliberately damaged, said Pistorius on the fringes of a meeting of EU counterparts in Brussels.

"Nobody believes that these cables were cut by mistake," said Pistorius. "That's why we have to state – without knowing exactly who it came from – that this is a hybrid action." However, there is currently no evidence of sabotage.

Two cables defective

On Monday, the Finnish state-owned company Cinia announced that the C-Lion1 submarine cable between Germany and Finland was faulty. The reason for the failure is currently being investigated, explained a Cinia spokesperson. "Disruptions occur from time to time, and there can be various reasons for this. For example, submarine cables are susceptible to weather conditions and damage during transportation. The most important thing is that the problem is recognized and remedial action is taken."

The Finnish Foreign Ministry and the Foreign Office in Berlin expressed their "deep concern" about the outage. A data cable between Lithuania and Sweden was also damaged on Sunday.

C-Lion1 was put into operation in 2016 and the end points of the fiber optic connection are in Helsinki and Rostock. The C-Lion1 cable is almost 1200 kilometers long. C-Lion1 shares 800 kilometers of the route with the Nord Stream pipeline. According to operator Cinia, the repair of such a cable can take 5 to 15 days. According to Cinia, the cable has to be lifted onto a repair ship. The break in the cable is located in Swedish waters.

Internet traffic in Finland is only limited due to the outage; data is currently being routed via other connections.

(dahe)