Lithuania sees ‘quite high probability’ that Baltic Sea cables were intentionally cut

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By Andrius Sytas

VILNIUS (Reuters) -Lithuania’s President Gitanas Nauseda said on Friday that there was a quite high probability that the two undersea fibre-optic cables that were damaged last month in the Baltic Sea were cut intentionally.

Both cables, one connecting Finland and Germany and the other connecting Sweden and Lithuania, were repaired and are back online after being damaged in less than 24 hours on Nov. 17-18.

“There is quite high probability that this is a malign activity, the recent disruption of cables in the Baltic Sea,” Nauseda told reporters. However, he added there was no evidence to prove that the damage was deliberate.

Investigators have zeroed in on Chinese bulk carrier Yi Peng 3, which left the Russian port of Ust-Luga on Nov. 15, and a Reuters analysis of MarineTraffic data showed that the ship’s coordinates corresponded to the time and place of the breaches.

Security sources say the carrier was responsible for severing the two cables in Swedish economic waters by dragging its anchor on the seabed.

Western intelligence officials from multiple countries have said they are confident the Chinese ship caused the cuts to both cables. But they have expressed different views on whether these were accidents or could have been deliberate.

As of Monday, the vessel was stationary in Danish economic waters, being watched by NATO members’ naval ships, having been urged by Sweden to return to be investigated.

China has said it is ready to assist in the investigation, while its ally Russia has denied involvement.

The case is similar to an incident last year when the Chinese ship New Polar Bear damaged two cables linking Estonia to Finland and Sweden as well as an Estonia-Finland gas pipeline.

(Reporting by Andrius Sytas in VilniusEditing by Louise Rasmussen, Terje Solsvik and Frances Kerry)