New undersea cable sabotage fears as key power link between Finland and Estonia is cut on Christmas Day
A vital undersea cable in the Baltic Sea appeared to suffer damage on Christmas Day, triggering fresh fears of sabotage.
The latest incident cut the electricity connection on Estlink 2 between EU and NATO states Finland and Estonia on December 25.
Finnish transmission system operator Fingrid representative, Arto Pahkin, said intentional malicious action has not been ruled out
Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said the authorities are 'investigating the matter.'
Estonian network operator Elering said there was sufficient spare capacity to meet power needs on the Estonian side.
Suspicions have focused on Chinese-linked vessels and an alleged hybrid war by Russia over several incidents involving Baltic undersea cables.
Two data cables, one running between Finland and Germany, the other between Lithuania and Sweden, were severed in November.
Germany's defence minister Boris Pistorius said officials had to assume 'sabotage', without providing evidence or saying who might have been responsible.
The remark came during a speech in which he discussed hybrid warfare threats from Russia - though investigators quickly zeroed in on a Chinese ship, which had left the Russian port of Ust-Luga on November 15.
A Reuters analysis of MarineTraffic data showed the vessel's coordinates corresponded to the time and place of the breaches.
Earlier, the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines built to supply natural gas from Russia to Germany were damaged by underwater explosions in September 2022.
There has been no conclusive finding as to who was responsible.
Estlink-2 had returned to commercial use at the beginning of September after being out of service since the end of January due to a failure.
Eagle S crude oil tanker sailing under the flag of the Cook Islands was seen in the area around the time of the Estlink2 power cut
Rad More Here: Daily Mail
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