Baltic Sea data cable joining Finland and Germany allegedly sabotaged

A submarine data communications cable across the Baltic Sea between Finland and Germany has broken, Finnish authorities said, amid fears it may have been sabotaged. The Finnish state-controlled data services provider, Cinia, said ‘a fault’ was detected Monday in the C-Lion1 cable that runs nearly 1,200 kilometres (746 miles) from the Finnish capital, Helsinki, to the German port city of Rostock.

The cable, commissioned in 2016, is Finland’s only data communications cable that runs from the Nordic country directly to central Europe, according to Finnish public broadcaster YLE. Finnish media outlets noted the cable’s route runs in the vicinity of the two NordStream gas pipelines between Russia and Germany that were sabotaged. Finnish authorities are investigating the source of the cable break. More than 400 subsea cables form the backbone of the internet, carrying more than 97% of the world’s data traffic.

But Western defence chiefs have warned that the likes of Russia and China , with advanced submersibles and submarine capabilities, could seek to plunge Western nations into disarray by damaging or cutting them. The sudden breakdown of the Baltic Sea data cable comes days after the Royal Navy announced it was tracking a Russian spy ship straying close to undersea cables in the Irish Sea and RAF jets were scrambled to monitor a Russian reconnaissance plane flying close to UK airspace. and RAF jets were scrambled to monitor a Russian reconnaissance plane flying close to UK airspace.

Undersea cables, largely owned and installed by private companies, are designed to withstand the natural rigours under the sea and cannot be cut easily. Typically just over an inch in diameter, they consist of fibre optics — strands of glass as thin as a hair — in the centre, surrounded by galvanised steel wire armouring and then, on the outside, a plastic coating. They are engineered to the ‘five nines’ standard — meaning they are reliable 99.999 per cent of the time, a level generally reserved for nuclear weapons and space shuttles.

But, armed with hydraulic cutters attached to their hulls, Russian submersibles would make short work of the hosepipe-thin cables. Alternatively, divers or remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) fitted with cutters could do the job. The Yantar, billed by Moscow as an ‘oceanographic research vessel’, is one such ship that boasts advanced submersibles designed for engineering missions which can examine areas up to 3.75 miles underwater. And it was one of three Russian vessels sailing through the Channel last week. As it headed toward British shores, the research craft turned off its transponder – erasing it from commercial marine tracking systems.

On Thursday it briefly appeared some 60 kilometres off the coast of Ireland before disappearing again, raising fears it was operating above vital undersea cables responsible for connecting Britain and Ireland and carrying the UK’s digital data. Despite its official status as a research vessel, a Russian parliament publication previously said the Yantar carries technology ‘designed for deep-sea tracking, as well as equipment for connecting to top-secret communication cables’. The Royal Navy dispatched HMS Cattistock to shadow the vessel while the RAF sent a Poseidon P8 reconnaissance plane to track its movements.

Meanwhile, two Typhoon fighter jets from RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland followed a Russian Tupolev-142, a maritime reconnaissance aircraft known as the ‘Bear-F’ in NATO countries, as it flew over the North Sea. ‘Our adversaries should be in no doubt of our steadfast determination and formidable ability to protect the UK,’ said armed forces minister Luke Pollard. ‘The Royal Navy and RAF (Royal Air Force) have once again shown they stand ready to defend our country at a moment’s notice and I pay tribute to the professionalism and bravery of those involved in these latest operations,’ he added.

The RAF scramble to intercept the Bear-F came days after the Royal Navy was forced to shadow Russian military vessels passing through the Channel that were accompanied by the Yantar. It was the second time in three months that Russian ships and aircraft had been detected around UK airspace and waters within a week of each other. Incidents involving Russian and Western aircraft have multiplied over the recent months against the backdrop of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine . Last week, Vladimir Putin ‘s most modern frigate passed through the English Channel on its maiden long-distance voyage.

The Admiral Golovko, the newest member of Russia’s Northern Fleet, is armed with hypersonic Tsirkon missiles. These projectiles can travel some 900km at several times the speed of sound, making it almost impossible for conventional air defence systems to shoot them down. The warship, one of 10 planned for production as part of Russia’s Project 22350, left its Arctic home base in Severomorsk almost two weeks days ago and sailed through the Barents, Norwegian and North Seas before heading for the Channel. ‘The crew of the Admiral Golovko frigate of the Russian Navy’s Northern Fleet held exercises in the English Channel,’ said Russian defence ministry TV channel Zvezda.

‘The sailors practised anti-submarine and anti-aircraft defence, and conducted a training rescue operation using Ka-27 helicopters.’ Footage showed the drills as the vessel passed through the narrowest point of the busy seaway between England and France amid high tension between Moscow and the West over Putin’s war against Ukraine. Russia’s defence ministry said of the Golovko’s drills: ‘The combat crews of the frigate’s main command centre trained to disperse dangerous targets in the difficult conditions of intensive shipping in the strait .’ The war games included ‘anti-terrorist drills’ repelling aerial and marine drones of a ‘mock enemy’, said naval sources.

The Admiral Golovko was accompanied by the Yantar, which subsequently switched off its transponder and diverted into the North Sea. The 443ft-long Admiral Golovko passed through the English Channel and was last week performing missions in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. State news agency TASS said: ‘The main goals of the long-distance deployment are to demonstrate the Russian flag and ensure Russia’s naval presence in operationally important areas of the World Ocean.’ The 5,400-ton Admiral Golovko joined the Navy in December and is the third frigate in the Project 22350 series. As well as Tsirkon, the frigate is armed with a 130mm A-192 artillery system, a Redut air-defence missile system, launchers for 16 Oniks or Kalibr-NK anti-ship missiles and a Paket-NK anti-submarine system.

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