NATO ships will begin protecting critical infrastructure in the Baltic Sea later this week, according to Finnish state television on Wednesday.
Approximately ten ships, including some from NATO’s Baltic Fleet and others assigned by specific NATO countries, would execute patrol and protection duties in the Baltic Sea until April.
Reports say that the ships will be stationed near energy and data cables,
They are expected to create a deterrent effect and increase the risk for those who might sabotage the cables.
The Baltic Sea has been the scene of several high-profile infrastructure incidents since the onset of Russia’s war on Ukraine in February 2022, which heightened tensions in the region.
Most recently, Finland reported that Eagle S tanker had been detained in connection with the subsea cable damage incident that occurred on Christmas Day.
In last November, two telecommunications cables linking Sweden and Denmark were severed.
Authorities suspect the Chinese vessel Yi Peng 3, which sailed over the cables, while China denied Sweden’s request to investigate the ship.
The Arelion submarine cable, which connects the Swedish island of Gotland to Lithuania, and the C-Lion 1 submarine communications cable that runs between Finland’s capital Helsinki and Germany’s Rostock city, were also damaged in mid-November near Sweden’s territorial waters.
European officials have speculated that the latest outages are the result of sabotage, which could be linked to Russia’s continuing war in Ukraine. However, the Kremlin has dismissed the charges, calling them “absurd.”
The September 2022 explosions that ruptured the Nord Stream pipelines transporting Russian gas to Europe are still unresolved, highlighting the region’s vulnerability to submarine attacks on critical infrastructure.
Authorities around the Baltic region continue to examine these incidents with heightened vigilance, as geopolitical tensions show no signs of easing.
