NATO member countries have decided to deploy frigates, patrol aircraft and naval drones to the Baltic Sea following incidents of damage to undersea fibre-optic communication cables, Reuters reported on Tuesday, January 14.
NATO plans to protect critical infrastructure and take action against ships suspected of posing a security threat. The operation, which will deploy frigates, drones and patrol aircraft, is called "Baltic Sentinel". The countries have decided to respond to repeated damage to cables, communication lines and gas pipelines.
Finnish President Alexander Stubb said that the damage to the Finnish-Estonian power line Estlink 2 and four telecommunications cables on December 25 was linked to the aggressor country Russia.
"They are definitely connected in the sense that the ship was part of the Russian shadow fleet. And we know that the cargo on it was Russian. The connection is clear. However, it is too early to draw further conclusions about the involvement in this crime," Stubb told Reuters.
About 2,000 ships cross the Baltic Sea every day, which makes it difficult to control them all, Latvian President Edgars Rinkėvičs said.
"Agree, we cannot provide 100% protection, but if we send a bold signal, then I think the number of such incidents will decrease or even stop," Rinkėvičs said.
As Ukrainian News Agency reported, in December a fiber-optic internet cable broke between Finland and Sweden.
In November, the C-Lion-1 underwater fiber-optic communication cable between Finland and Germany was damaged.
In March, an internet cable connecting Europe and Asia was damaged in the Red Sea.
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