Sweden seizes ship after suspected cable sabotage in Baltic Sea

Swedish authorities have seized a vessel suspected of damaging a data cable running under the Baltic Sea to Latvia.

Prosecutors said an initial investigation pointed to sabotage, and an investigation involving Sweden’s police, military and coast guard was launched.

Earlier on Sunday, the Latvian military said two ships had been spotted in the area where the damage was done.

The apparent attack comes less than a month after NATO launched a new mission in the Baltic Sea in response to repeated attacks on undersea power and telecommunications cables – some of which have been blamed on Russia.

Latvian Prime Minister Evika Selina said her country was working closely with Sweden and NATO in response to the incident.

The cable belongs to Latvia’s state broadcaster, LVRTC, which said in a statement that there had been “disruption to data transmission services” but that end users would not be affected.

Earlier this month, NATO launched its new “Baltic Sentry” mission after several cables under the Baltic Sea were damaged or severed in 2024.

NATO chief Mark Rutte said the mission would include more patrol planes, warships and drones.

Although Russia was not directly blamed for the cable failure, Rutte said NATO would increase its surveillance of Moscow’s “shadow fleet” – ships without clear ownership that are used to carry embargoed oil products.

Rutte said there was “reason for serious concern” about the damage to infrastructure, adding that NATO would respond to future incidents decisively, with more boarding of suspicious vessels and, if necessary, confiscating them.

Late last year, Finnish police said they were investigating whether a Russian ship was involved in the sabotage of an electrical cable running between Finland and Estonia.