The NATO military alliance announced today that it will launch a Baltic Sea monitoring mission following suspected sabotage of undersea cables in recent months.
“The Baltic Sentry mission would include “frigates and maritime patrols, among other assets,” NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte told a regional meeting in the Finnish capital Helsinki.
However, he declined to provide details on the number of vessels “as it could vary from week to week” and did not want to make “the enemy smarter than he already is.”
NATO was also coy about the duration of the mission, saying in a statement that the operation would last “indefinitely.”
The suspected sabotage was attributed to a “shadow fleet” of vessels carrying Russian oil and oil products, which have been under embargo since the start of the invasion of Ukraine, Euractiv reported.
“The management of all these cases is still ongoing, but there are serious reasons for concern,” Rutte said.
He stressed that protecting underwater infrastructure was of “the utmost importance” not only for energy supplies but also for internet traffic.
The leaders of NATO’s Baltic states said in a statement after the Helsinki meeting that the “shadow fleet” poses a particular threat to maritime and environmental security in the Baltic Sea region and globally.
