Baltic Sea Underwater Infrastructure Events

The Baltic Sea is traversed by many means of communication and power distribution and by pipelines.[1] These are vulnerable to incidents which might damage them, in particular involving anchoring. There have been multiple incidents which have caused disruption to undersea infrastructure.

Summary table

Baltic Sea Underwater Infrastructure Events[2][3][4][5][6]
Date Facility Type Between And Nature of event Suspects Notes
10 October 2004 Bornholm Cable power cable Sweden Denmark severed[7] possibly Tuc Merkur[8][9] tug and barge with coal to the Avedøre Power Station
January 2010 Bornholm Cable power cable Sweden Denmark severed Timberland[8][10]
15 January 2013 Bornholm Cable power cable Sweden Denmark severed not named[11] compensation paid[8]
28 February 2022 Bornholm Cable power cable Sweden Denmark severed tanker Samus Swan[12] tanker's anchor fouled the cable[8]
26 September 2022 Nord Stream 1 & 2 gas pipelines Russia Germany explosion unknown Danish and German investigations
7 October 2023 EE-S1 fiberoptic communications cable Sweden Estonia partly severed cargo ships Sevmorput and Newnew Polar Bear investigation concluded cable was damaged by external force
8 October 2023 Balticconnector gas pipeline Finland Estonia physical container ship Newnew Polar Bear Chinese government later admitted the ship was at fault
18 November 2024 BCS East-West Interlink data cable Sweden Lithuania severed bulk carrier Yi Peng 3 investigation ongoing
18 November 2024 C-Lion1 data cable Finland Germany severed bulk carrier Yi Peng 3 investigation ongoing
25 December 2024 Estlink 2 power cable Finland Estonia severed oil tanker Eagle S investigation ongoing
26 January 2025 TV & Radio fiberoptic TV & radio cable Sweden Latvia severed Vezhen or Silver Dania? suspicions of deliberate sabotage later dropped - deemed an accident
26 January 2025 (detected February) C-Lion1 submarine cable telecommunications Finland Germany data disturbance ? investigation ongoing
31 December 2025 Elisa data cable data cable Finland Estonia data disruption freighter Fitburg[13] investigation ongoing;
anchor dragged 10s of km

See also

References

  1. ^ "Submarine Cable Map 2025". submarine-cable-map-2025.telegeography.com. Retrieved 26 January 2026.
  2. ^ "Mapping Undersea Infrastructure Attacks in the Baltic Sea | Wilson Center". www.wilsoncenter.org. 24 March 2025. Retrieved 25 January 2026.
  3. ^ "Subsea Sabotage: A Timeline of Disturbing Events in the Baltic Sea - Maritime Hub". maritime-hub.com. 4 January 2025. Retrieved 25 January 2026.
  4. ^ Buchholz, Katharina. "Baltic Sea Cable Incidents Pile Up—Who Is To Blame?". Forbes. Retrieved 25 January 2026.
  5. ^ "Navigating the threats to seabed infrastructure". Silobreaker. 28 May 2025. Retrieved 25 January 2026.
  6. ^ "Global powers race to protect undersea cables from rising Russia-China threats". Cybernews. 21 July 2025. Retrieved 25 January 2026.
  7. ^ "Dyr reparation af bornholmer-kabel - TV 2" [Expensive repair of Bornholm cable]. nyheder.tv2.dk (in Danish). 11 October 2004. Retrieved 25 January 2026.
  8. ^ a b c d "overrevne soekabler historien der gentager sig" [Overcrowded sea cables - history repeating itself]. TV 2/Bornholm. Retrieved 25 January 2026.
  9. ^ "Kungörelse" [Announcement]. Dagens Nyheter: 14. 2005-06-29.
  10. ^ Godske Følg, Bjørn (12 January 2010). "Efter kabelbrud - Bornholm: Vi er verdensmestre i ø-drift" [After cable break - Bornholm: We are world champions]. ing.dk. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  11. ^ "Höga vågor försenar lagning av kabel - Skadad elledning till Bornholm" [High waves delay cable repair - Damaged power line to Bornholm]. Ystads Allehanda: 18. 2013-01-15.
  12. ^ "Mulig kæmpeerstatning paa vej for ødelagt soekabel" [Possible huge compensation on the way for damaged submarine cable]. TV 2/Bornholm. 3 March 2022.
  13. ^ "Finland releases ship suspected of Baltic cable damage, orders some crew to remain". yle.fi. 12 January 2026. Retrieved 12 January 2026.

Further reading

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