Two undersea internet cables damaged in the Baltic Sea

Finnish telecom operator Cinia detected a “failure” on the undersea internet cable C-Lion1 on November 18, 2024, at 4 a.m. This cable, which connects Finland to Germany, was commissioned in 2016 and spans 1,173 kilometers. It was severed in the Baltic Sea, within the Swedish exclusive economic zone, east of the southern tip of Öland. A repair vessel has been dispatched to the site, and restoration work is expected to take between five and fifteen days.

Cinia, however, emphasized that “Finland’s international telecommunications connections are routed through multiple paths,” and the incident is not expected to disrupt transmissions. A second cable was damaged the same night: the BCS East-West Interlink, a 217-kilometer connection between Lithuania and the Swedish island of Gotland.

The possibility of sabotage appears likely, particularly since the incidents occurred in shallow waters accessible to divers. “At this time, it is not possible to determine the cause of the cable break, but such damage does not occur in these waters without external impact,” Cinia noted.

In a joint statement, Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Finland’s Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen expressed their “deep concern.” They stated, “The fact that such an incident immediately raises suspicions of intentional damage speaks volumes about the instability of our time.”

Suspicion has turned toward Russia. Shortly before the incident, NATO launched a military exercise on Finnish soil, following Finland’s and Sweden’s recent accession to the Atlantic Alliance. The exercise is taking place near the Finnish-Russian border, which Russia had previously declared a “red line” not to be crossed.