Chinese ship suspected of sabotaging the undersea telecom cables in Baltic Sea

Danish Navy vessels pursued, intercepted, and boarded the Chinese ship Yi Peng 3, suspected of sabotaging the undersea telecom cables connecting Finland-Germany and Sweden-Lithuania. It was reported by Visegrad24.

The Chinese cargo ship, followed by the Danish navy, may be linked to the disruption of cables on the Baltic Sea floor, Scandinavian and German media reported on Tuesday.

Chinese vessel was moving near broken communication cables

A Chinese vessel named Yi Peng 3 was moving in the vicinity of both broken communication cables at the same time when their damage was discovered.

On November 17, around 10 a.m. Finnish time, damage to the submarine cable between Sweden and Lithuania was discovered. The Yi Peng 3 vessel moved near the cable a little before 10 a.m., according to the data from the Marine Traffic Service, which monitors ship traffic.

The Swedish police initiated an investigation into possible sabotage in relation to the damage to two communication cables in the Baltic Sea. Finland has also launched an investigation.

Later, Finland and Sweden have agreed to set up a joint investigation team to investigate the breakdown of the C-Lion1 communication cable connecting Finland with Germany. Timo Kilpelainen, a representative of the Finnish Central Criminal Police, stated this at a briefing, according to Yle.

Two undersea cables damaged in the Baltic Sea

Two undersea cables have been damaged in the Baltic Sea. The Finnish newspaper “Iltalehti” points to the Chinese ship Yi Peng 3, which made suspicious movements near the site of the damage, spotted by OSINT analysts.

On November 18, Cinia, a state-owned company that constructs fiber optic networks and offers telecommunication services, reported a problem with its C-Lion1 cable connecting Finland to Germany. The cable is 1173 km long and runs from the Gulf near Helsinki to Rostock in Germany. Launched in 2016, this cable is the only submarine communication cable that runs directly to Central Europe.

The nearly 1,200-kilometer-long cable is the only direct link of its kind between Finland and Central Europe and runs alongside other important infrastructure, including gas pipelines and power cables.

The same day, Telia announced the damage to a submarine telecommunications cable that runs between Lithuania and Sweden along the Baltic Sea floor.

Swedish, Finnish, and German defense ministers suspect sabotage

Sweden’s Minister of Civil Defense, Carl-Oscar Bohlin, said that the Swedish Armed Forces and Coast Guard recorded ship movements that coincided in time and place with the disruption of two telecommunications cables on the Baltic Sea floor.

In a statement to TV4, Bohlin confirmed that these findings prompted the Swedish police to initiate an investigation regarding the potential for sabotage in both incidents. However, he did not disclose details.

“NATO and the EU must do much more to protect critical infrastructure” – Häkkinen

Finnish Defense Minister Antti Häkkinen believes that NATO and the European Union should take measures to counter hybrid threats and protect submarine communication cables from attacks. In an interview with Politico Häkkinen said that NATO and the EU “must do much more to protect critical infrastructure.”

“We know that Russia has [the] capability and willingness to do sabotage in Europe. And of course, we are investigating [these] kind of damages also with that kind of point of view, that is there [is] sabotage. Because it’s really unlikely that [it] is some kind of a natural accident,” Häkkinen told Politico.

The Finnish minister called attacks on critical infrastructure in international waters “something new” and said they are difficult to prevent.

“Under international waters, on the seabed, these submarine cables pose the greatest challenge in protecting our societies. That’s why it’s so difficult for Western countries,” Häkkinen explained.

“No one believes that these cables broke on their own” – Pistorius

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said that the cable outages in the Baltic Sea seem like sabotage, as reported by Reuters.

“No one believes that these cables broke on their own. I also don’t want to believe the versions that the damage was caused by the anchor by accident,” Pistorius said before the meeting of EU defense ministers in Brussels.

“That’s why we have to state, without knowing exactly where it comes from, that it’s a ‘hybrid operation’. And we also have to assume, without knowing it for sure, that it is sabotage,” Pistorius stated.

What Seismologist Institute and Marinetraffic Service say?

Seismologist Toni Veikkolainen from the Institute of Seismology at the University of Helsinki says that they have not come to know of any unusual observation that could indicate a possible explosion, Yle reported.

According to the Marinetraffic Service, the Chinese ship Yi Peng 3 previously stopped at the port of Ust-Luga in Russia. On Sunday, it reported a tracking system failure, and on Monday, it changed its course at the cable intersection site, raising suspicions.

Reports indicate that the “Yi Peng 3” passed close to the damaged cables, then reduced its speed and drifted near the site.

This possible sabotage has raised security concerns in the Baltic Sea region, particularly in light of previous incidents. In 2023, several cables and gas pipelines suffered damage, including notable explosions in the Nord Stream gas pipelines in 2022, which led to intensified fears of sabotage.