Finland-Estonia power cable hit in latest Baltic incident

HELSINKI – An undersea power cable linking Finland and Estonia broke down on Dec 25, Finland’s Prime Minister said, the latest in a series of incidents involving telecommunications cables and energy pipelines in the Baltic Sea.

Mr Arto Pahkin, the head of operations of the Finnish electricity grid, told public broadcaster Yle that “the possibility of sabotage cannot be ruled out”.

Finland’s Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said the power outage “does not affect electricity supplies for Finns”.

“The authorities remain vigilant even during Christmas and are investigating the situation,” he added on X.

Operator Fingrid said the current on the EstLink 2 cable sending electricity to Estonia was cut at 12.26pm local time.

In November, two telecoms cables in the Baltic linking neighbouring Sweden and Denmark

were also cut.

Suspicion rapidly fell

on the Chinese ship Yi Peng 3, which according to ship tracking sites had sailed over the cables around the time they were cut.

Sweden said on Dec 23 that

China had denied a request

for prosecutors to conduct an investigation on the vessel and that it had left the area.

European officials said they suspect several of the incidents are sabotage linked to

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,

with the Kremlin dismissing this as “absurd” and “laughable”.

Early on Nov 17, the Arelion cable running from the Swedish island of Gotland to Lithuania was damaged.

The next day, the C-Lion 1 submarine cable connecting Helsinki and the German port of Rostock was cut south of Sweden’s Oland island.

Tensions have mounted around the Baltic since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

In September 2022, a series of underwater blasts ruptured the Nord Stream pipelines that carried Russian gas to Europe. The cause of the blasts has yet to be determined.

In October 2023, an undersea gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia was shut down after it was damaged by the anchor of a Chinese cargo ship. REUTERS