Today at 01:04
Swedish prosecutors announced on Sunday evening that they had launched an investigation into a possible act of sabotage following damage to an undersea fiber-optic cable connecting Latvia with the Swedish island of Gotland earlier that day.
According to AP, Swedish authorities have also issued a warrant to detain a vessel in the Baltic Sea suspected of involvement in the incident.
“Several agencies are involved in the investigation, including the National Police’s Operational Department, the Coast Guard, and the Armed Forces,” said senior prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist from the National Security Department.
The Swedish Coast Guard confirmed to local media that it is present at the site near the detained vessel, identified by journalists as the Vezhen, a Malta-flagged ship anchored near the port of Karlskrona.
“We are directly on-site with the detained vessel and are taking measures in accordance with the prosecutor’s decision,” said Coast Guard representative Mattias Lindholm.
According to Vesselfinder data, the vessel had departed from the Russian port of Ust-Luga a few days earlier and was traveling between Gotland and Latvia at the time of the alleged damage.
On January 26, reports surfaced about damage to the undersea fiber-optic cable operated by the Latvian State Radio and Television Center (LVRTC).
Notably, on January 14, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte announced the launch of Baltic Sentry, a mission to patrol key areas of the Baltic Sea and protect undersea infrastructure.
This initiative follows a series of incidents involving damage to undersea infrastructure in the Baltic and growing threats posed by the so-called “shadow fleet” of tankers transporting Russian oil.
