NATO ships to start guarding critical locations in Baltic Sea

NATO ships will start guarding critical locations in the Baltic Sea later this week, Finnish public broadcaster YLE reported on Wednesday.

Around 10 ships, which will include some ships from NATO's Baltic Fleet on duty and some that will be deployed by certain NATO countries will conduct patrol and protection missions in the Baltic Sea until April, according to the broadcaster.

Noting that the ships would be placed near energy and data cables, the broadcaster said: “They are expected to create a deterrent effect and increase the risk for those who might sabotage the cables.”

- Baltic Sea incidents

The Baltic Sea has been the scene of several high-profile infrastructure incidents since the onset of Russia's war on Ukraine in February 2022, which heightened tensions in the region.

Most recently, Finland reported that Eagle S tanker had been detained in connection with the subsea cable damage incident that occurred on Christmas Day.

In last November, two telecommunications cables linking Sweden and Denmark were severed. Authorities suspect the Chinese vessel Yi Peng 3, which sailed over the cables, while China denied Sweden's request to investigate the ship.

The Arelion submarine cable, which connects the Swedish island of Gotland to Lithuania, and the C-Lion 1 submarine communications cable that runs between Finland's capital Helsinki and Germany's Rostock city, were also damaged in mid-November near Sweden's territorial waters.

European officials have suggested that sabotage could be behind the recent disruptions, potentially linked to Russia's ongoing war on Ukraine. But the Kremlin has rejected the claims, calling them “absurd.”The September 2022 explosions that ruptured the Nord Stream pipelines carrying Russian gas to Europe remain unresolved, underscoring the region's vulnerability to undersea attacks on key infrastructure.

Authorities across the Baltic region continue to investigate these incidents amid heightened vigilance as geopolitical tensions show no sign of abating.