Ship from Russia detained in Finland after another incident involving damage to an undersea telecommunications cable in the Baltic Sea. Credit: Roni Rekomaa / Lehtikuva / Profimedia
Estonian authorities acknowledged on Wednesday the existence of problems with five submarine telecommunications cables, including the one that led to the initiation of an investigation in Finland against a ship suspected of having caused damage to one of these infrastructures, although Tallinn indicated that no negative effects were observed, reports EFE, quoted by Agerpres.
According to a press release from the Estonian Ministry of Justice and Digital Affairs, authorities in this Baltic country have detected faults in five cables, with incidents prior to those detected on Wednesday at the cable owned by the Finnish company Elisa, which connects Estonia to Finland.
Among the other cables with problems is that of the Chinese company CITIC, which connects Estonia to Sweden and which has been affected by incidents since Sunday, and three others owned by Swedish companies, which cross the submarine region of the Baltic Sea.
According to the quoted source, the problems with these four cables are most likely due to “adverse weather conditions”, but the break between Estonia and Finland, detected on Wednesday morning, could be related to the passage of a ship between the exclusive economic zone of Estonia and that of Finland.
“Finnish police have initiated a criminal case to investigate the incident, verify the ship's connection to the damage and carry out the first legal proceedings. The ship had its anchor chain in the water at the time of the arrest,” the Estonian ministry recalled.
New incident with the interruption of telecommunications cables in the Baltic Sea. Finland detained a cargo ship that had left Russia, Estonia reported a separate incident
Despite the disruption and damage to several reported underwater telecommunications cables, Estonian and international customers are not experiencing any effects derived from these incidents, according to a press release from Elisa's Estonian subsidiary.
Estonia's connections continue to be sufficiently supported by other submarine and land cables, which guarantees the continuity of all services, the Estonian Ministry of Justice and Digital Affairs confirmed.
“This system guarantees the resilience of our cross-border internet connection and our information systems in any situation,” said the relevant Estonian minister, Liisa Pakosta.
