US allies in Europe claim Russia is “escalating its hybrid activities” against NATO and EU countries following the cutting of two data cables in the Baltic Sea.
The declaration came amid Moscow’s announcement that the Ukrainian military fired six U.S.-made missiles into Russian territory on Tuesday. In the previous two days, cables connecting Finland to Germany, Sweden and Lithuania were cut underwater, Reuters reported.
“No one believes that these cables were accidentally cut,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. “We also have to assume that it’s sabotage without us even realizing it.”
Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski added: “If Russia does not stop its destructive activities in Europe, Warsaw will close its remaining consulates in Poland.”
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The C-Lion1 communications cable is seen being laid in the Baltic Sea near Helsinki, Finland, in October 2015. (Heikki Saukkomer/Lehtikuva/AFP via Getty Images)
The foreign ministers of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom issued a joint statement saying, “Moscow’s escalating hybrid activities against NATO and European Union (EU) countries are significant in their diversity and scale. “This is unprecedented and creates significant security risks.”
However, Tuesday’s statement did not directly blame Moscow for the cable damage.
The statement also said: “In response to this historic challenge, we stand united with our European and transatlantic partners and are determined to take Europe’s security seriously and act accordingly.” “European countries must play an even greater role in ensuring their own security, in cooperation with global partners across the Atlantic.”
Finland’s national data service provider, Senior, announced on Monday that a severed data cable was detected on the C-Lion 1 cable, which runs about 1,250 miles from Finland’s capital Helsinki to the German port city of Rostock.
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Germany and Finland said they were “deeply concerned” that the undersea communications cable linking the two countries had been severed. (Heikki Saukkomer/Lehtikuva/AFP via Getty Images)
C-Lion1, which was commissioned in 2016, is Finland’s only data communications cable that runs directly from the Nordic country to central Europe, according to Finnish public broadcaster YLE.
A senior European official told Fox News: “The data cable between Finland and Germany was damaged and service was cut off. The scene is in Swedish territorial waters and Swedish authorities are investigating.”
The Finnish and German foreign ministries said in a joint statement that the damage occurred at a time when “our European security is under threat not only from Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine, but also from hybrid warfare by malicious actors.” Ta.
The statement said countries were investigating the incident and it was important to protect such “critical infrastructure.”
According to Reuters, Russia, whose President Vladimir Putin is pictured here, denied destroying European infrastructure. (Gabriil Grigorov/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
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“The fact that such incidents immediately raise suspicions of intentional damage speaks volumes about the instability of our times,” the two countries added.
Fox News’ Anders Hagstrom, Jennifer Griffin and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
