Cables damaged in Baltic Sea. Captain of suspected ship may have been Russian citizen - Bild

The German Federal Police have joined the investigation into the potential damage to telecommunications cables in the Baltic Sea, working in cooperation with Finland and Sweden.

According to reports, a German Coast Guard vessel will be deployed to assist in the investigation and will soon head to the site of the incident.

What happened to the cables in the Baltic Sea

Recently, two underwater telecommunications cables laid along the Baltic Sea bed failed simultaneously. One of the cables, over a thousand kilometers long, connected Helsinki to the German city of Rostock.

The cause of the malfunction has not yet been determined, and an investigation is ongoing.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has suggested that the damage to the underwater cables may have been "deliberate."

One theory is that the cables could have been severed by a dropped anchor or a bottom trawl. The Chinese cargo vessel Yi Peng 3 has come under suspicion. The ship attracted attention due to its unusual routes, prompting two Danish Navy ships to track it.

Reports indicate that, according to social media posts, the Danes apparently intercepted Yi Peng 3 and detained it. The ship’s captain was identified as a Russian citizen.

It was reported that the underwater cable C-Lion1, connecting Finland and Germany through the Baltic Sea, was found to be damaged. The company responsible for the cable announced that repairs could take 5–15 days.

The 1,173-kilometer cable connects Helsinki to Rostock and has been in operation since 2016, serving as the only direct route between Finland and Central Europe.

Later, it was revealed that another cable, linking Lithuania and Sweden, was also damaged in the Baltic Sea.