Latvia blames Russian ghost fleet for latest Baltic Sea incident. Kallas: “EU must do more”

Brussels – The story of the damage to a submarine cable in the Baltic Sea between Latvia and Sweden was in the spotlight yesterday (Jan. 26). While Stockholm has already launched an investigation and detained the first suspicious vessel, Riga has pointed the finger at ships of the Kremlin’s notorious “ghost fleet.” EU foreign ministers, meeting in Brussels today, discussed the possible deliberate act of sabotage. “We see hybrid threats all over Europe. We need to raise awareness and do more,” said EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Kaja Kallas.

Also present at the meeting among the ministers of the 27 was Henna Virkkunen, executive vice president of the European Commission responsible for technological sovereignty, security, and democracy. Upon her arrival, she assured that Brussels is “taking hybrid threats very seriously,” stressing that although “critical infrastructure protection and incident investigations are the responsibility of the member states,” the European Commission is “willing and able to support them.” In concrete terms, the EU executive’s support translates into “operational, financial, and information-sharing support.” Her compatriot and former Finnish president, Sauli Niinistö, last October drafted a report on European defense on behalf of Ursula von der Leyen in October, stressing the need to establish a European anti-sabotage network able to provide support at the request of member states.

However, this time — after a series of mysterious incidents in just a few months that also involved Germany, Finland, and Lithuania – Latvian and Swedish authorities responded quickly. Immediately after the news of the disruption of the fiber-optic cable connecting Latvia to the Swedish island of Gotland, the Latvian premier, Evika Silina, had already informed that she was working “together with Swedish allies and NATO to investigate the incident, including patrolling the area, as well as inspecting the vessels present.” For the past week, a naval operation –NATO’s Baltic Sentry —  was deployed in northern waters to deal with hybrid attacks on strategic infrastructure in the Baltic Sea.

Suspicion has fallen on a merchant ship, the MV Vezhen, owned by Navibulgar, a Bulgarian company,  and sailing under the Maltese flag. The vessel, now berthed at the Swedish port of Karlskrona, reportedly departed from the Russian port of Ust-Luga several days ago and was sailing between Gotland and Latvia when the accident is believed to have occurred. The hypothesis is that the vessel allegedly dragged its anchor, rupturing the cable at a depth of fifty meters.

“One of the ships involved is indeed part of a sanctioned ghost fleet,” Latvia’s foreign minister, Baiba Braze, said this morning upon arriving at the EU Foreign Affairs Council. “The good news is that our operator, the state-owned company that runs the data cables, was so well prepared that we did not suffer any data or transmission loss. The operational procedures and crisis scenarios worked,” she added. Praising the readiness of the two member countries, Executive Vice President Virkkunen pointed out, “After five or six incidents in the last period, I think we are much better prepared, but of course we have to do more.”