STOCKHOLM: Two telecommunications cables cut in the Baltic Sea in 48 hours have prompted Nordic and German officials to say they suspect “sabotage” and “hybrid warfare” stemming from Russia.

On Monday, Finnish operator Cinia reported that the “C-Lion1 submarine cable” connecting Helsinki and the German port of Rostock had been cut for unknown reasons.

The break was traced to a location south of the island of Oland in Swedish waters, some 700 kilometres (435 miles) from Helsinki.

“These kinds of breaks don’t happen in these waters without an outside impact,” a Cinia spokesperson said.

Meeting in Brussels, the foreign ministers of Germany, Annalena Baerbock, and Finland, Elina Valtonen, said it hinted at foul play.

“The fact that such an incident immediately raises suspicions of intentional damage speaks volumes about the volatility of our times,” they said in a joint statement.

“Our European security is not only under threat from Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, but also from hybrid warfare by malicious actors.”

Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation announced Tuesday it had launched an investigation into the broken cable, “to establish what has happened”. The “Arelion” submarine cable between the Swedish island of Gotland and Lithuania has also been damaged since Sunday morning, a spokesman for the Lithuanian branch of the operator Telia said Tuesday.

Internet traffic has been redirected to other international links, Audrius Stasiulaitis said.

“We can confirm that the interruption to internet traffic was not caused by an equipment fault but by material damage to the fibre optic cable,” he said.