Finland-Estonia power cable hit in latest Baltic incident
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Finland's Prime Minister Petteri Orpo says the power outage "does not affect electricity supplies for Finns."
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Finland’s Prime Minister Petteri Orpo arrives for an EU summit at the European Council building in Brussels, on December 19, 2024. (AP)
Finland's prime minister said an undersea power cable connecting Finland and Estonia malfunctioned on Wednesday, the latest incident of several events affecting telecom cables and energy pipelines in the Baltic Sea.
Head of operations for the Finnish electricity grid, Arto Pahkin, stated in an interview with public broadcaster Yle that "sabotage cannot be excluded as a possibility."
Finland's Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said the power outage "does not affect electricity supplies for Finns."
"The authorities remain vigilant even during Christmas and are investigating the situation," he added on X.
Operator Fingrid reported that the connection on the EstLink 2 cable, which transmits electricity to Estonia, was lost at 12:26 PM local time (10:26 GMT).
It is worth mentioning that last month, two telecoms cables in the Baltic linking neighboring Sweden and Denmark were also cut. After that, suspicions rapidly fell on the Chinese ship Yi Peng 3, which ship tracking sites claimed sailed over the cables around the time they were cut.
On Monday, Sweden said that China denied a request for prosecutors to conduct, an investigation on the vessel, revealing that it had left the area.
According to European officials, several of the incidents are sabotage allegedly linked to Russia's war in Ukraine, with the Kremlin dismissing this as "absurd" and "laughable".
On November 17, the Arelion cable running from the Swedish island of Gotland to Lithuania was damaged, and the next day, the C-Lion 1 submarine cable connecting Helsinki and the German port of Rostock was cut south of Sweden's Oland island.
Two years ago in September, a series of underwater blasts ruptured the Nord Stream pipelines that carried Russian gas to Europe and in October last year, an undersea gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia was shut down after it was damaged by the anchor of a Chinese cargo ship.
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