An undersea power cable connecting Finland and Estonia failed on Wednesday, Finland's prime minister said, calling it the latest in a series of accidents involving cables and energy pipelines in the Baltic Sea.
Arto Parkin, head of operations at the Finnish power grid, told public broadcaster Ale that sabotage could not be ruled out.
Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said the power outage had not affected the country's electricity supply.
“Authorities remain vigilant throughout Christmas and are investigating the situation,” he wrote to X.
Fingrid said the current on the EstLink 2 cable, which carries power to Estonia, was interrupted at 12:26 pm local time (10:26 pm Japan time).
Two Baltic communication cables linking Sweden and Denmark were also cut last month.
According to tracking sites, suspicions quickly grew about the Chinese ship Yi Peng 3, which was said to have been sailing on top of the cable around the time it was cut.
Sweden announced on Monday that China had rejected a request by prosecutors to investigate the ship and had left the area.
European officials said some of the incidents were suspected of involvement in sabotage related to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The Kremlin dismissed the claims as “ridiculous” and “laughable.”
The Alerion cable, which ran from the Swedish island of Gotland to Lithuania, was damaged in the early hours of November 17, and the next day the C-Lion 1 cable, which connects Helsinki to the German port of Rostock, was severed south of the Swedish island of Oland. Ta.
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Tensions around the Baltic Sea have been rising since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
In September 2022, the Nord Stream pipeline carrying Russian gas to Europe ruptured in a series of underwater explosions, but the cause of the explosions has not yet been determined.
An undersea gas pipeline connecting Finland and Estonia was shut down in October 2023 after a Chinese cargo ship's anchor was damaged.
