Baltic Sea cable damage probed as Latvia rules out ship involvement

Latvian authorities say there is so far no evidence that a vessel inspected in the port of Liepāja was responsible for damage to an underwater telecommunications cable in the Baltic Sea, Reuters reports.

Reuters reports that Latvian police have found no evidence linking a ship in the port of Liepāja to damage to a Baltic Sea telecommunications cable, but say the investigation into the outage is continuing.

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According to Reuters, police examined the ship’s anchor, equipment and logs after the cable outage was discovered near Liepāja on Friday, but found nothing to suggest a link to the damage, adding that the crew had cooperated voluntarily.

Investigators have nevertheless opened criminal proceedings and say inquiries are continuing.

The cable connects Liepāja, on Latvia’s western Baltic coast, with Sventoji in neighbouring Lithuania, a distance of around 65km (40 miles), though the cause of the disruption remains unclear.

The incident comes amid heightened security concerns in the Baltic Sea region following a series of power, telecoms and gas infrastructure failures since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

NATO has since increased its military presence in the area.

Reuters notes that the case follows a separate incident in late December, when Finnish police seized a cargo vessel suspected of damaging an undersea telecoms cable in the Gulf of Finland by dragging its anchor.

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Source: Reuters