With its powerful chamber, the surveillance plane of the French Navy that reveals the Baltic Sea approached a cargo ship praying underneath, closer, closer until the chamber operator could take details on the front cover of the front of the container and smoke from its fireplace.
The long -range Atlantique 2 plane on a new mission for NATO then changed its high -tech look to another goal, and another after that until, after more than five hours in the patrol, the variety of plane sensors had achieved most of most of the Baltic: from Germany in the West to Estonia in Northeast, bordering Russia.
The mere presence of the flight in the heavens above the strategic sea last week, combined with military ships patrolling in the waters, also sent an unmistakable message: the NATO alliance is increasing its guard against the alleged attempts to sabotage energy and the data cables and the pipes that Crisscross the Baltic, caused by a growing catalog of incidents that have damaged them.
“We will do everything within our reach to make sure we fight, that we can see what is happening and then take the following steps to ensure that it does not happen again. And our adversaries should know this, “NATO general secretary Mark Rutte said this month, announcing a new mission of the alliance, called” Baltic Sentinel “, to protect the vital underwater infrastructure for the economic well -being of the nations of the nations of The Baltic Region.
Power and Communications cables and gas pipes join the nine countries with coasts in the Baltic, a relatively shallow and almost coastal sea. Some examples are the 152-kilometer balicconnector pipe (94 miles) that transports gas between Finland and Estonia, the high-voltage Baltic cable that connects the electrical networks of Sweden and Germany, and 1,173 kilometer (729 miles) c-) lion1 cable1 cable of telecommunications between Finland and Germany.
Why are cables important?
Underwater pipes and cables help energy economies, keep the houses hot and connect billions of people. More than 1.3 million kilometers (807,800 miles) of fiber optic cables, more than enough to stretch to the moon and back, cover the oceans and seas of the world, according to telegeography, which tracks and maps vital communication networks. The cables are typically the width of a garden hose. But 97% of the world's communications, including billion dollars of financial transactions, pass through them every day.
Get last minute national news
For the news that affects Canada and worldwide, register to receive news alerts that are given directly when they occur.
“Only in the last two months, we have seen damage to a cable that connects Lithuania and Sweden, another connecting Germany and Finland, and more recently, several cables that link Estonia and Finland. The investigations of all these cases are still ongoing. But there is a reason for serious concern, ”said Routte on January 14.
At least 11 Baltic cables have been damaged since October 2023, the most recent is a fiber optic cable that connects to Latvia and the Swedish island of Gotland, which has broken on Sunday. Although cable operators point out that underwater damage is common, the frequency and concentration of Baltic incidents increased suspicions that the damage could have been deliberate.
There are also fears that Russia can point to cables as part of a broader campaign of the so -called “hybrid war” to destabilize European nations that help Ukraine defend against the large -scale invasion that Moscow has been pursued since 2022 .
Without specifically blaming Russia, Routte said: “Hybrid means sabotage. Hybrid means cyber attacks. Hybrid sometimes means even murder attacks, attempts and, in this case, it means hitting our critical submarine infrastructure. “
Finnish police suspect that the Eagle S, an oil tanker who damaged the Estlink 2 feeding cable and two other communications cables that link Finland and Estonia on December 25, is part of the “shadow fleet” of Moscow used to avoid Sanctions related to war on the sanctions of the war on exports.
The Finnish authorities confiscated the oil tanker shortly after he left a Russian port and apparently cut the cables by dragging their anchor. Finnish researchers claim that the ship left a anchor path of almost 100 kilometers (62 miles) long at the bottom of the sea.
Intelligence agencies doubts
Several Western intelligence officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of their work, told The Associated Press that the recent damage was probably accidental, apparently caused by the anchors dragged by ships that were poorly maintained and poorly manned.
A senior intelligence official told AP that the records of the ships and the mechanical failures with the anchors of the ships were among the “multiple indications” that pointed away from the Russian sabotage. The official said that the Russian cables were also cut. Another western official, who also speaks anonymously to discuss intelligence issues, said that Russia sent an intelligence collection container to the site of a cable breakup to investigate the damage.
The Washington Post first reported the emerging consensus among US and European security services that maritime accidents probably caused recent damage.
Cable operators advise caution
The European Submarine Cable Association, which represents the owners and cable operators, said in November after failures were reported on two Baltic links that, on average, an underwater cable is damaged somewhere in the world every three days. In the waters of northern Europe, the main causes of damage are commercial fishing or ship anchors, he said.
In the rupture of the fiber optic cable on Sunday that connects to Latvia and Sweden, the Swedish authorities arrested a ship with the Maltés flag to South America with a fertilizer load.
Navibulgar, a Bulgarian company owner from time to time, said that any damage was not intentional and that the ship's crew discovered while navigating with a lot of time that its left anchor seemed to have dragged into the bottom of the sea.
Mission of 'Baltic Sentry' of NATO
The alliance is deploying warships, maritime patrol planes and naval drones so that the mission provides “greater surveillance and deterrence.”
On board the French Navy surveillance flight, the crew of 14 members reviewed the ships that saw from the air against vessel lists that had ordered them to have been ordered.
“If we witness some suspicious activities of ships such as sea, for example, ships at a very low speed or anchoring in a position that should not be at this time, so this is something we can see,” said the commander Flight, Lieutenant Alban, whose last name was retained by the French army for security reasons.
“We can look very close with our sensors to see what is happening.”
Burrows reported from London. AP Jill Lawless journalists in London, David Klepper in Washington and Veselin Toshkov in Sofia, Bulgaria, contributed to this report.