Riding a French Navy flight above the Baltic Sea (AP) Its powerful cameraScoring French Navy Surveillance Airplane Bustle A cargo plane operating the bottom water was zoomed on a nearby, near and near, until the camera operator made details about smoke from the front of the ship and its fireplace.
On a new mission for long distance Atlantic 2 aircraft NATO Then his high-tech sights were moved to another target, and after that, after more than five hours on patrols, the array of plane sensors a large part of the Baltic-from Germany to northeast, Estonia, from Germany, from Germany to Estonia, Connected to Russia
The presence of flying in the skies above the strategic sea last week, together with While patrolling the military ships on the waterA unruly message was also sent: NATO alliance is accelerating its guard against suspected efforts to sabotage underwater energy and data cables and pipelines, which crosses Baltic, which these events The increasing catalog of them has damaged them.
“We will do everything in our strength to ensure that we will fight, we are able to see what is happening and then take the next steps to ensure that this does not happen again. And our opponents should know, “NATO Secretary -General Mark Roti Said this month Announcing the mission of a new coalition, under the name “Baltic Sentry”, to protect underwater infrastructure, which is essential for the economic welfare of the Baltic region.
What is the bottom of the Baltic?
Electricity and communication cables and gas pipelines Nine countries together along the coast on the Baltic, a relatively shall descended and near the nearly land lock. Some examples of this are 152 km (94 miles) Baltcontinator pipelines that carry gas between Finland and Estonia, high -voltage Baltic cable connects Sweden and Germany’s electric grid, and 1,173 km (729 miles) C-Line1 Telecommunications Cable between Finland and Germany.
Why are cables important?
Andrea pipes and cables help the electricity economies, keep houses warm and connect billions of people. According to Tele Geography, according to Tele Geography, more than enough to spread to the moon and waist – more than 1.3 million kilometers (807,800 miles) of fiber optic cables – spread over the world’s oceans and oceans. Map Important communication networks. Cables are usually the width of the garden hose. But 97 % of the world’s communications, including trillions of dollars of financial transactions, pass through them every day.
“Only in the last two months, we have damaged a cable linked to Lithuania and Sweden, which is another cable -related cables associated with Germany and Finland, and recently. There are still concerns. “Bread said January 14.
What is the reason for the alarm?
At least 11 Baltic cables have been damaged since October 2023. This is the most recent fiber optic cable that connects Latvia and Swedish Island Gotland. It exploded on Sunday. Although cable operators noted that the damage to the subsidy cable is common, the frequency and concentration of incidents in Baltic has raised suspicion that the damage can be deliberately.
It also fears that cables may be targeted as part of Russia A wider campaign Of the so -called “hybrid warfare” to destabilize European countries Full -scale attack He is pursuing Moscow 2022.
Without blaming Russia, especially, bread said: “Hybrid means sabotage. Hybrid means cyber -attack. Hybrid means sometimes even murder attacks, efforts and in this case, This means that our critical is to kill the Andrea Infrastructure.
Finnish police suspect EagomAn oil tanker that damaged the East Link 2 Power Cable and two other communications cables on December 25, a part of it, is a part of Moscow’s “Shadow Rat” Used to avoid war -related Sanctions Russian oil exports.
Finnish officials Occupied the tanker Shortly thereafter, he left the Russian port and apparently dragged his anchor and cut the cables. Finnish investigators alleged that the ship left about 100km (62 miles) a long anchor trail on the shore.
The doubts of intelligence agencies
Several Western intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity for their work -sensitive nature, told the Associate Press that the recent loss was most accidental, apparently the cause of the anchors dragging by ships From which was maintained poorly and poorly staffed.
A senior intelligence official told the AP that ships and mechanical failures along with the anchors of the ships also included “numerous indicators” that are far from Russian sabotage. The Russian cables were also cut off, the official said. Another Western official, speaking in anonymity to discuss intelligence issues, said Russia sent an intelligence collecting ship to a cable -broken site to investigate the damage.
The Washington Post first reported the emerging consensus between US and European security services that maritime accidents were likely to suffer recent losses.
Cable operators recommend caution
The European Sub Cables Association, which represents cable owners and operators, noted after reports of errors on two Baltic links in November, which on average, damaged a cable of a cable everywhere in the world every three days. Is It states that in northern European waters, the main reasons for the damage are commercial fishing or ship anchors.
On Sunday, Latvia and Sweden were broken by the fiber optic cable, Swedish authorities detained the Maltese flag ship for South America with fertilizers.
A Bulgarian company, who owns Visan, said Any damage was unintentional And that the ship’s crew visited the bad weather and discovered that his left anchor had seen dragged on the shore.
NATO’s ‘Baltic Sentry’ Mission
The alliance is deploying warships, marine patrols and naval drones for the “better surveillance and connection” mission.
On a French Navy surveillance flight, a 14 -member crew cross -check -checked ship, which they saw by the air against the list of ships, were ordered to be seen.
The flight commander said, “If we observe some suspicious activities from the ships as a sea – for example, the ship at a very little or on anchor in the position that they should not be at this time – so it is The thing we can see. ” Lieutenant Albin, whose kinship was stopped by the French army for security reasons.
“We can look very deeply with our sensors to see what’s going on.”
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Bros reported from London. AP journalist Jill Lales in London, David Clipper in Washington and Veselin Toshkov in Sofia in Bulgaria participated in the report.
