Latvian police reported no evidence linking a ship docked in Liepaja to recent damage to an underwater telecoms cable between Latvia and Lithuania. The investigation continues amid heightened alert in the Baltic Sea region, following multiple outages of power cables and gas pipelines since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. NATO has increased its military presence in response.
The latest incident involved a cable owned by Swedish firm Arelion, which suffered damage near Liepaja. Authorities boarded a ship and initiated criminal proceedings, but details about the vessel remain undisclosed. This incident occurred shortly after Finnish police detained a ship suspected of damaging an Elisa telecoms cable in the Gulf of Finland.
Arelion confirmed that three cables—linking Latvia to Lithuania, Finland to Estonia, and Estonia to Sweden—were fully severed, with investigations ongoing. The company anticipates restoration of the first cable within a few days, with the others expected to follow in one to two weeks.
On January 2, MarineTraffic data indicated four ships traversing the Lithuania-Latvia cable route, with three remaining in port as of Monday. Latvian police have inspected the ship and its equipment, but found no connection to the cable damage.
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