Cables in the Baltic Sea: NATO did not notice the involvement of the Russian Federation - WSJ

The publication spoke with the commander of the Naval Forces of Belgium Eric Cox, who worked in the Baltic Sentry mission. He said ten ships that joined the mission, he said. If the vessels were approaching, for example, underwater cables, they were detained and found out details of the route. The patrol began in January 2025 and as of March did not find evidence of Russian participation in diversions, according to the WSJ article.

"According to officials familiar with the investigation, no evidence was found that Moscow had ordered or organized destruction," the journalists concluded the NATO military. The Alliance began to patrol the Baltic Sea intensely, the publication said. In addition to military and patrols and police, drones and reconnaissance aircraft were attracted. The mission's task is to monitor pipelines and underwater cables to protect them from sabotage and sabotage.

Last year, the Alliance created the Center for Critical Underwater Infrastructure. The Center's work is mainly involved in the naval forces of Europeans, but there are 40 Marines. NATO representatives inspect, for example, ships of the "shadow fleet" of the Russian Federation, which carry Russian oil. Three -month patrol did not prove that these or other vessels were somehow involved in sabotage in the Baltic Sea, summarizing the publication. "It is quite difficult to prove that our presence helps.

It is hard to say that if we were not, something would happen. [But] we see how behavior has improved. The ships know that they are watching them," WSJ Eric Coke explained. It should be noted that Focus wrote about a series of incidents with the optic fiber in the Baltic Sea and suspicion of sabotage of the Russian Federation. One of the first such cases occurred in November 2024.

Cinia's Finnish company reported that there was a break in the online connection cable that was coming from Finland to Germany. To detect the place of gap, the divers had to inspect 1 200 km of fiber, the company explained. In February, a similar incident occurred: Sweden's power suspected that it was acting malefactors and there were threats to security. In January 2025, the Silcer Dania ship was detained in Norway.

The ship crew 100% consisted of Russian citizens and suspected of sabotage in the Baltic Sea. As NRK has found out, the ship transports fish from the Netherlands to Murmansk, and its owner has long been cooperating with Russia. We would like to remind you that on January 12, CNN reported a fire on a Russian oil tanker that drifted not far from the Baltic coast.