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An undersea fibre optic cable between Latvia and Sweden was damaged on Sunday, probably as a result of external influence, Riga has said, prompting Nato to deploy patrol ships to the area and triggering a sabotage investigation by Swedish authorities.
Sweden’s security service has seized control of a vessel as part of the inquiry, the country’s prosecution authority said.
“We are now carrying out a number of concrete investigative measures, but I cannot go into what they consist of due to the ongoing preliminary investigation,” senior prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist said.
“We have determined that there is most likely external damage and that it is significant,” the Latvian prime minister, Evika Siliņa, told reporters after an extraordinary government meeting.
Latvia was coordinating with Nato and the countries of the Baltic Sea region to clarify the circumstances, she said separately in a post on X.
Latvia’s navy said earlier on Sunday it had dispatched a patrol boat to inspect a ship and that two other vessels were also subject to investigation.
Nato said last week it would deploy frigates, patrol aircraft and naval drones in the Baltic Sea to help protect critical infrastructure and reserved the right to take action against ships suspected of posing a security threat.
“Nato ships and aircrafts are working together with national resources from the Baltic Sea countries to investigate and, if necessary, take action,” the alliance said on Sunday.
Swedish navy spokesperson Jimmie Adamsson earlier told Reuters it was too soon to say what caused the damage to the cable or whether it was intentional or a technical fault.
The Swedish prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, said his country was cooperating closely with Latvia and Nato over the latest incident. “Sweden will contribute important capabilities to the ongoing effort to investigate the suspected incident,” Kristersson said on X.
Finnish police last month seized a tanker carrying Russian oil and said they suspected the vessel had damaged the Finnish-Estonian Estlink 2 power line and four telecoms cables by dragging its anchor across the seabed.
The cable that broke early on Sunday linked the Latvian city of Ventspils with Sweden’s Gotland island, and was damaged in Sweden’s exclusive economic zone, the Latvian navy said.
Unlike seabed gas pipelines and power cables, which can take many months to repair after damage, fibre optic cables that have suffered damage in the Baltic Sea have generally been restored within weeks.
A Swedish Post and Telecom Authority spokesperson said it was aware of the situation but had no further comment.
