‘Hybrid warfare’ warnings as two undersea cables cut between U.S. allies
A Western security official told NBC News earlier this month that Russia was responsible for sending two incendiary devices to DHL logistics hubs in Germany and the United Kingdom in July, as part of a wider sabotage campaign to possibly start fires aboard aircraft bound for North America.
The head of Britain’s intelligence agency MI5 said last month that Russia’s GRU intelligence service was on a mission to generate “sustained mayhem on British and European streets.”
Both Finland and Sweden have joined NATO in the past two years, bolstering the alliance’s eastern flank in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Russia has repeatedly rejected allegations from Western countries that it is orchestrating a sabotage campaign in Europe.
Damage to other infrastructure in the Baltic Sea has raised fears of sabotage in recent years.
Explosions in September 2022 damaged Nord Stream pipelines, built to carry Russian natural gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea. The damage added to tensions over the war in Ukraine as European countries moved to wean themselves off Russian energy sources.
Who was responsible for the sabotage remains a mystery, and German prosecutors are still investigating the explosion, which sparked theories that either Ukraine or Russia might have been behind the blasts.
In August, Beijing admitted that a Chinese-owned ship damaged a critical Baltic Sea gas pipeline running between Estonia and Finland in October 2023. It said it was an accident.
Sub-sea cables crisscross the world beneath the oceans, but simmering tensions between Russia and western nations has brought their geopolitical importance into sharp focus.
The telecommunications cable running between Germany and Finland that was severed is known as the C-Lion1 cable, and is the only direct connection of its kind between Finland and Central Europe. It runs from the German city of Rostock to the Finnish capital Helsinki.
Such cables are laid by specially-modified ships that carry the cable on board and slowly lay it down on the seabed. When they’re damaged, divers or small submersibles are sent down to investigate any cuts before the two ends are brought to the surface for repair.
Finnish operator CINIA said Monday that the repair time for submarine cables is between 5 and 15 days.
Escalating anxieties over Russian attacks beyond its war with Ukraine have spread through northern Europe in recent months as governments advise their citizens on how to prepare for crisis.
On Monday, millions of people in Sweden began receiving a pamphlet advising them on how to prepare and cope in the event of war.
“In case of a crisis or war,” is an updated version of a pamphlet produced six years ago, but it is now twice the size with guidance on evacuation, terror attacks, and “how to stop bleeding.”
Neighboring Finland has also published new advice online about how to prepare for crisis events, and Norwegians also recently received a pamphlet urging residents to be prepared for war, extreme weather, and other threats.
