Sweden seizes ship after suspected Baltic Sea cable sabotage

Latvian Prime Minister Evika Selina said her country was working closely with Sweden and NATO to respond to the incident.

The cable belongs to Latvia’s state broadcaster, LVRTC, which said in a statement that there was a “disruption in data transmission services”, but that end users would not be affected.

Earlier this month, NATO launched its new “Baltic Sentry” mission, after several cables under the Baltic Sea were damaged or cut in 2024.

NATO chief Mark Rutte said the mission would involve more patrol planes, warships and drones.

Although Russia was not directly named as the culprit in the cable damage, Rutte said NATO would monitor Moscow’s “shadow fleet” – vessels with no clear ownership used to transport embargoed oil products.

Rutte said there were “reasons for concern” about the damage to infrastructure, adding that NATO would respond to future incidents strongly, with more ships being deployed and, if necessary, seizing them.

Finnish police late last year said they were investigating whether a Russian ship was involved in the sabotage of power cables between Finland and Estonia.