A series of infrastructure sabotages in the Baltic Sea have occurred recently. On February 8, Rostelecom - one of Russia's largest telecommunications companies - announced a break in the Baltic Sea due to external forces.
"A while ago, in the Baltic Sea, a underground cable line of Rostelecom was damaged by external forces. The repair is being implemented," - Rostelecom operator shared with the RIA Novosti news agency.
On the same day, Finnish Coast Guard said it was monitoring the Russian underground cable repair activity carried out by a Russian ship in the Gulf of Finland. According to local authorities, the cable break occurred in Finland's exclusive economic region.
In November 2023, Finnish authorities reported that a Rostelecom cable in the Baltic Sea broke in October, nearly coinciding with the time when underground infrastructure in Sweden and Finland was damaged.
Also related to the developments in the Baltic Sea, on February 6, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said that the captains of the vessels that damaged underwater infrastructure in the Baltic Sea such as telecommunication cables or gas pipelines should be punished by the EU to prevent similar acts.
Foreign Minister Sikorski said that Poland - the country that assumes the rotating presidency of the European Union - wants this proposal to become part of the 16th package of sanctions against Russia. This is a package of sanctions related to Russia launching military operations in Ukraine and is being discussed by EU governments.
The Baltic Sea area is experiencing a high alert after a series of power outages, telecommunication cuts and gas pipeline cuts after the Russia-Ukraine conflict broke out in 2022. Most of the incidents were caused by tugboats anchored at the bottom of the sea, damaging infrastructure.
"I feel frustrated when the freedom of maritime freedom is registered by old ships to hang the flag of taxes. These ships have no insurance or cannot activate insurance. When in international waters, Those ships cannot even be blocked and searched. Head of Sikorski shared with the press in Brussels.
Foreign Minister Sikorski warned that warships and spy boats are currently on duty to map underwater infrastructure, not only in the Baltic region but also in the North Sea, "so what we are seeing may be just the first step for worse things to happen."
"We have asked the EU authorities to begin sanctioning the crews of these vessels. We have their names because they have docked at European port. When they cause damage without stopping and do not explain, they may be included in the list of individual sanctions... This will have a deterrent effect to prevent similar actions," he said.
