Europe fumes as Russia and China accused of ‘systematically attacking’ Baltic Sea fibre-optic cables

Europe’s politicians and police forces are scrambling for answers after two fibre-optic cables under the Baltic Sea were “sabotaged” this week – with Russia and China apparently to blame.

On Sunday and Monday, two cables – one linking Finland and Germany, the other between Sweden and Lithuania – were severed, raising suspicions of a malicious attack.

Germany said the cable-cutting was an act of sabotage – and though it and Finland launched a “thorough investigation” into the cause, the pair initially stopped short of naming a potential culprit.

Then, Swedish police and Nato allies released statements laying the blame at China’s and Russia’s doors, respectively.

“Russia is systematically attacking European security architecture,” the foreign ministers of the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Poland said in a joint statement.

“Moscow’s escalating hybrid activities against NATO and EU countries are also unprecedented in their variety and scale, creating significant security risks,” they added.

While police in Sweden said a Chinese ship off the coast of Denmark, the Yi Peng 3, was “of interest” to their investigations.

The Yi Peng 3 had passed over the two cables on Sunday and Monday – and ever since, it has been shadowed by a Danish naval vessel.

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Denmark’s defence command said: “The Danish Defence can confirm that we are present in the area near the Chinese ship Yi Peng 3. The Danish Defence currently has no further comments.”

While Per Engstrom, from Sweden’s National Operative Department said the ship “is part of the sphere of interest, but there may be more.”

He said Swedish coast guards were assisting with “increased surveillance around the relevant areas”, and added: “We are ready to take investigative measures to get a clearer picture of what may have happened.”

Meanwhile, Lin Jian, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, said: “China has consistently and fully fulfilled its obligations as a flag state and requires Chinese vessels to strictly abide by the relevant laws and regulations.”

And Russia has also downplayed any involvement – Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a regular news briefing: “It is quite absurd to continue to blame Russia for everything without any reason.”

In September 2022, a trio of Nord Stream gas pipelines between Russia and Germany were destroyed some seven months after Putin’s forces invaded Ukraine.

At the time, nobody took responsibility for the attacks – and though some Western officials initially blamed Russia, which the Kremlin denied, American and German media claimed pro-Ukrainian saboteurs may have been the culprits.

The companies owning the two cables damaged earlier this week have said it was not yet clear what caused the outages.