Germany and Finland investigate a severed data cable through the Baltic Sea

People sit on the steps of Helsinki Cathedral in Helsinki, Finland, on April 3, 2023. (Sergei Grits / AP)

Helsinki -

Germany and Finland expressed deep concern over the discovery Monday of a severed undersea data cable between the countries through the Baltic Sea, saying it raised suspicions of sabotage and that an investigation was underway.

The foreign ministries of the two countries said in a joint statement that the damage comes at a time that “our European security is not only under threat from Russia‘s war of aggression against Ukraine, but also from hybrid warfare by malicious actors.”

The statement said the countries were investigating the incident, and that it was crucial that such “critical infrastructure" be safeguarded.

“The fact that such an incident immediately raises suspicions of intentional damage speaks volumes about the volatility of our times,” the two countries said.

The Finnish state-controlled data services provider Cinia said the severed data cable was detected Monday in the C-Lion1 cable that runs nearly 1,200 kilometres from the Finnish capital, Helsinki, to the German port city of Rostock.

Cinia said Finland’s international data and telecommunications connections are secured by running them through several redundant lines, and the effects of a single cable failure would depend on the security level of service providers’ connections.

The C-Lion1, commissioned in 2016, is Finland’s only data communications cable that runs from the Nordic country directly to central Europe, according to Finnish public broadcaster YLE.

Finnish media outlets noted that the cable's route to Germany runs in the vicinity of the two NordStream gas pipelines between Russia and Germany that aren’t currently functioning.