Power cable between Finland & Estonia breaks down in latest incident in Baltic Sea, sabotage not ruled out

An undersea power cable which links Finland and Estonia broke down, joining the series of incidents involving cables and energy pipelines in the Baltic Sea. Finland’s Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said that the incident took place on Wednesday. Shortly after the incident, the Finnish electricity grid’s head of operations, Arto Pahkin told Yle that sabotage could not be ruled out.

In a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, Orpo said that the outage has not affected the Nordic nation’s electricity supplies. “The Estlink 2 electricity transmission connection between Finland and Estonia has been disconnected this afternoon. Authorities are still on standby over Christmas and are investigating the matter,” the Finnish premier wrote on X. “The interruption of the transmission connection will not affect the electricity supply of Finns,” he added.

Suomen ja Viron välinen Estlink 2-sähkönsiirtoyhteys on pudonnut iltapäivällä verkosta. Viranomaiset ovat joulunakin hereillä ja selvittävät asiaa. Siirtoyhteyden katkeaminen ei vaikuta suomalaisten sähkönsaantiin.

— Petteri Orpo (@PetteriOrpo) December 25, 2024

More from World

Nepal's new PM pays homage to people died during the Gen Z protest in her first national address This Week in Explainers: How recovering from Gen-Z protests is a Himalayan task for Nepal

Meanwhile, Fingrid said that the EstLink 2 cable sending electricity to Estonia was cut at  12:26 pm (local time). The incident took place a month after two telecom cables that link Sweden and Denmark were cut, growing concerns among the authorities.

China remains the prime suspect

In the November incident, suspicions fell on the Chinese ship Yi Peng 3, which according to tracking sites had sailed over the cables around the time they were cut. On Monday, Sweden said that China had denied a request for prosecutors to investigate the vessel and that it had left the area.

Meanwhile, European officials linked several incidents of sabotage to Russia, which is currently embroiled in a war against Ukraine. Kremlin, however, dismissed the claims, calling it “absurd” and “laughable”. On November 17, the Arelion cable running from the Swedish island of Gotland to Lithuania was damaged and the C-Lion 1 cable connecting Helsinki and the German port of Rostock was cut south of Sweden’s Oland island the very next day.

Impact Shorts

More Shorts

‘The cries of this widow will echo’: In first public remarks, Erika Kirk warns Charlie’s killers they’ve ‘unleashed a fire’

Trump urges Nato to back sanctions on Russia, calls for 50–100% tariffs on China

Tensions reached an all-time high in the Baltic Sea, since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. In September 2022, a series of underwater explosions ruptured the Nord Stream pipelines that carried Russian gas to Europe. The cause of the blast continues to remain a mystery. In October 2023, An undersea gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia was shut down after damage caused by a Chinese cargo ship.

With inputs from AFP.