Russia says its undersea telecom cable in Baltic Sea damaged by 'external impact'
Russia's state-controlled telecom giant Rostelecom announced on Feb. 8 that one of its underwater cables in the Baltic Sea had been damaged due to an "external impact."
The company did not specify the cause of the damage but confirmed that repair work was underway. Rostelecom said that the incident did not affect consumers, according to AFP.
The damage comes amid a series of recent disruptions to undersea telecom and power cables in the Baltic Sea. Western experts and officials have accused Russia of engaging in hybrid warfare against countries supporting Ukraine.
On Jan. 30, Norwegian authorities detained the Silver Dania vessel with a Russian crew on suspicion of damaging an undersea fiber-optic cable linking Latvia and Sweden.
NATO has responded by increasing patrols to safeguard critical underwater infrastructure.
On the same day, Finland's coast guard reported that a Russian vessel was conducting repairs on a damaged underwater cable in the Gulf of Finland. Finnish authorities confirmed that the incident took place within Finland's exclusive economic zone but did not provide details on how or when the damage occurred.
In response to growing concerns over subsea security, NATO launched a patrol mission in January to protect vital infrastructure in the region. The operation, called "Baltic Sentry," involves aircraft, frigates, submarines, and drones monitoring the area for potential threats.
Similar incidents have been reported in the past when Finnish authorities discovered damage to another Rostelecom cable in the Baltic Sea. That incident coincided with disruptions to underwater infrastructure in both Sweden and Finland, further raising suspicions of deliberate sabotage.
Read also: Russia's Baltic Sea sabotage is no accident, it's strategy
We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Senate Proposes Selling Up to 3 Million Acres of Public Land
The Republican majority on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is calling for the U.S. government to sell up to three million acres of public land in order to hit revenue goals in the federal budget. That's the astonishing high end of acreage of BLM and U.S. Forest Service land that would be required to be sold or transferred, the revenues from which would go to the U.S. Treasury. The low end of the spectrum is just over 2 million acres of federal land. Language requiring the government to 'dispose' of millions of acres of land was inserted in the committee's draft bill, which was released this evening by committee chair Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT). The bill would require consultation with the governor of each state affected, and would require consideration of 'the extent to which the development of the tract of Bureau of Land Management land or National Forest System land would address local housing needs (including housing supply and affordability).' The bill lists BLM and Forest Service land in most Western states as 'eligible for disposal.' Conspicuously absent from the list is Montana, whose Congressional delegation has been vocal in their opposition to land sales or transfers. When the House Natural Resources Committee considered a version of the budget that included for sale some 500,000 acres of BLM land in Nevada and Utah, Montana congressmen Ryan Zinke and Troy Downing were among the few Republicans to oppose the measure. Given the slim Republican majority in the House, Republican leadership stripped the land-sale provision from the bill before passing it and passing it to the Senate. Montana Senator Steve Daines (R) has said he opposes sales of federal land, and in an emailed statement today his office reiterated that 'Senator Daines is against the sale of public lands and is making his strong concerns clear to his colleagues.' Federal land protected from sale, according to the committee bill draft, includes national parks, national monuments, national wildlife refuges, and a number of other land-management agencies. But the number of acres at play is significant, and is by far the biggest proposed federal land sale in modern U.S. history. The bill draft requires the BLM to divest itself of between 1.18 million and 1.77 million acres, and the Forest Service to sell or transfer between 686,000 and 1.03 million acres. That's about 2.8 million. 'The Secretary shall select for disposal not less than 0.50 percent and not more than 0.75 percent of Bureau of Land Management land, and shall dispose of all right, title, and interest of the United States in and to those tracts selected for disposal,' the bill draft reads. The Secretary of Agriculture (acting through the Chief of the Forest Service) is required to sell a similar percentage of Forest Service lands. Without Montana's contribution, the amount of BLM land in the West totals a little over 251 million acres. Forest Service holdings total about 146 million acres. In a video accompanying the committee's bill draft, Sen. Lee noted that about a third of American real estate is owned by the federal government, and about 70 percent of his state is in federal landownership. 'That's not sustainable,' he says in the recording. 'It's not fair. It's not serving the Americans who actually live here. 'We're opening underused federal land to expand housing, support local development, and get Washington, D.C. out of the way of communities that are just trying to grow.' In the video, Lee assuages the conservation community, which has been almost unanimously opposed to smaller land sales proposed in earlier budget drafts. 'To our hunters, anglers, and sportsmen, you will not lose access to the lands you love. Washington has proven it can't manage this land. This bill puts it in better hands.'

Epoch Times
2 hours ago
- Epoch Times
Putin Won't Stop at Ukraine, Says Chair of Joint Chiefs of Staff
Gen. Dan 'Razin' Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told senators on June 11 that he does not believe Russian President Vladimir Putin would stop at Ukraine if he succeeds in conquering the country. Caine made the comment during
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
New Russian ambassador tells Trump he will work to restore relations
(Reuters) -The new Russian ambassador to the United States, Alexander Darchiev, pledged to work to fully restore relations with Washington as he formally presented his credentials to President Donald Trump on Wednesday, Russian news agencies reported. "Russia and the United States are destined, as great powers, to have non-confrontational peaceful existence," the agencies quoted Darchiev as telling a reception at Russian embassy after returning from the White House. "It was a great honour for me, as Russian ambassador, to speak with President Trump and I assured him that I and this embassy under my direction will do everything to restore Russian-American relations and bring them back to normality and common sense." He said Trump had found time to receive him on the eve of the Russia Day holiday - which marks Russia's 1990 declaration of sovereignty, more than a year before the Soviet collapse. Darchiev has already completed two diplomatic stints in the United States and served as ambassador to Canada from 2014 to 2021. Like other senior Russian diplomats, he has in recent years issued strong public denunciations of the United States and the West. Washington's relations with Moscow plunged to their lowest in decades under Trump's predecessor, Joe Biden, over the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine. Ties have improved since Trump took office, with the two sides in contact to discuss a possible resolution to the conflict. "We have at last moved from monologues under the previous administration and a general absence of discussion to quite a pragmatic conversation, a complicated conversation," Darchiev was quoted as saying. The ambassador said his meeting with the U.S. president was a short one as dictated by protocol. "Nonetheless, our discussion was very constructive," the agencies quoted him as saying.