The Baltic Sea region is on alert and the NATO alliance has boosted its presence after a series of power cable, telecom and gas pipeline outages since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Most were caused by civilian ships dragging their anchors.
Finnish telecom operator Cinia said on Friday it had detected minor damage on its C-Lion1 undersea fibre-optic link connecting Finland and Germany but that there was no impact on the cable's functionality.
Swedish police were investigating the matter because the breach had occurred in Sweden's economic zone, police spokesperson Mathias Rutegard told Reuters.
"The preliminary investigation relates to suspected sabotage," Rutegard said.
It is the third time in recent months that Cinia's C-Lion1 cable was damaged, after it was completely severed in November and December last year.
The Swedish coastguard said it had sent a vessel to help investigate the incident off the island of Gotland.
Sweden's prosecution authority said it was not involved in the investigation of the cable breach.
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said the government was being briefed and that damage to any undersea infrastructure was particularly concerning amid the current security situation.
The European Commission, responding to the recent spate of outages, said it will propose boosting surveillance of undersea cables and establishing a fleet of vessels available to carry out repairs in emergencies.
Some European governments are concerned about a number of recent incidents in which power cables, telecom links and gas pipelines have been damaged, possibly on purpose.
"We want to make sure Europe is equipped not only to prevent and detect sabotage to cables but also to actively deter, repair and respond to any threat to critical infrastructure that is key to our economy and collective security," said Henna Virkkunen, the European Commission's executive vice president in charge of security.
While no new funding has been announced, the Commission plans to channel hundreds of millions of euros already available under the bloc's budget towards these aims.
Together with EU members, the Commission said it would support the development of a surveillance mechanism "designed to link and fuse data" and "launch a dedicated surveillance drones program" in the air and under the sea.
It will also work to establish a regional hub in the Baltic Sea region as a test for the new surveillance approach, according to the plan.
