Finland-Estonia power cable hit in latest Baltic incident

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An undersea power cable linking Finland and Estonia broke down Wednesday, Finland’s prime minister said, the latest in a series of incidents involving telecom cables and energy pipelines in the Baltic Sea.

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.

READ: ‘Sabotage’ suspected after two Baltic Sea cables cut

Operator Fingrid said current on the EstLink 2 cable sending electricity to Estonia was cut at 12:26 pm local time (1026 GMT).

Last month two telecoms cables in the Baltic linking neighboring Sweden and Denmark were also cut.

Suspicions 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 Monday 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 November 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 which 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.