Summary
A fiber optic cable connecting Sweden and Finland was damaged on land, affecting 6,000 private customers and 100 businesses.
While Finnish authorities are investigating, Swedish officials suspect sabotage.
This incident follows recent undersea cable damage in the Baltic Sea, where two cables were severed in November, raising similar sabotage concerns.
The Baltic region, home to multiple NATO nations and Russia, has seen heightened tensions since the Nord Stream pipeline explosions in 2022.
Previous cases involved sightings of a China-flagged vessel, but Russia has denied involvement in any incidents.
A Chinese flagged ship disabled it’s transponders (so that people wouldn’t know where it was), slowed it’s speed, then dropped anchor and dragged it 100 miles across multiple underwater cables. This is almost certainly intentional sabotage, although it’s not yet clear what governments are responsible. The ship was loaded with Russian fertilizer, which is the main link to Russia.
Also:
Source
While Yi Peng 3’s behavior is highly suspicious and extremely likely to be intentional, I doubt they are responsible for severing a land cable :P