"Rostelecom" named the cause of cable damage in the Baltic Sea

The cause of damage to Rostelecom's Baltika underwater communication line in the Baltic Sea is believed to be the impact of a foreign ship's anchor. This was reported by the company on February 13.

"Cable damage occurred in the northern part of the Baltic Sea water area in the exclusive economic zone of Finland due to external impact presumably by the anchor of a foreign ship as a result of violations of navigation rules", - stated on the website of Rostelecom.

It is indicated that the damaged network sections were at a distance of 40 km from each other.

Now the repair work on the communication line has been completed - the rescue vessel "Sivuch" restored sections of 850 and 1.1 thousand meters long.

"The accident <...> did not affect the operation of the communication infrastructure and provision of services to users in the Kaliningrad region - data transmission was organized through backup communication channels," the company added.

Cable personalities: who could have damaged Estlink 2

The submarine cable accident has once again raised the issue of safety in the Baltic Sea

Damage to the Baltika fiber-optic communication line connecting St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad was reported on February 8. "Rostelecom" noted that the cause of network breakage was an external impact.

Earlier, in October 2023, the Baltica line was damaged in the Gulf of Finland on the same day as a leak on the Balticconnector pipeline. At that time, the network interruption also did not affect the operation of the communications infrastructure and provision of services to users in the Kaliningrad region.