Damage to cables in the Baltic Sea could have been sabotage – Pistorius

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius suspects that in case of damage to the cables at the bottom of the Baltic Sea of the sea is about sabotage.

He stated this before the beginning of the meeting of the heads of defense agencies in Brussels on November 19, the correspondent of Ukrinform reports.

The security situation in Europe is threatening, Russia  not only military, but also carries hybrid threats, Pistorius emphasized.

“This shows, in particular, the damage to both data cables in the Baltic Sea between Helsinki and Rostock, Sweden and Lithuania. It is a clear sign that something is happening. No one believes that these cables were cut by accident. And I am not inclined to believe the version that it was the anchors that damaged these cables. So we are forced to state, without knowing specifically who it came from, that this is a hybrid action, we have to assume that… it is sabotage,” the German Defense Minister said.

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He stressed the need to better protect critical infrastructure, including maritime. This is, in particular, the aim of the German-Norwegian initiative to counter hybrid threats and protect underwater infrastructure in the North and Baltic Seas.

Pistorius also spoke in general about the need to strengthen the EU's defense industry and standardize European weapons systems and announced plans to hold a meeting in Berlin next Monday of the heads of defense ministries of Germany, France, Poland, Italy, and the United Kingdom.

Previously, damage was reported to two communication cables in the Baltic Sea – between Finland and Germany and between Sweden and Lithuania. On Sunday, the BCS East-West Interlink cable, which connects Lithuania with the Swedish island of Gotland, completely failed. The following day, the Finnish state-owned company Cinia announced that a defect had been discovered in the C-Lion1 submarine data cable between Finland and Germany, causing communication to be interrupted.

The 1,173-kilometer C-Lion1 connects Helsinki and the city of Rostock in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The cable was put into operation in spring 2016 and is the only submarine data cable that runs directly from Finland to mainland Europe.