Before the sabotage, a Chinese ship was spotted near NATO’s submarine cables: it came from Russia

Shortly before the sabotage of two NATO submarine cables in the Baltic Sea, a Chinese ship was spotted near critical facilities.

The Chinese ship Yi Peng 3 was spotted near the damaged submarine telecommunications cables in the Baltic Sea, Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat reports.

The ship had previously called at the Russian port of Ust-Luga. The incident raised suspicions of possible sabotage.

The ship Yi Peng 3 approached one of the cables at about the same time as the cable malfunction was discovered. On the morning of November 19, two Danish warships followed the Yi Peng 3 in the Baltic Sea.

The Yi Peng 3 belongs to Ningbo Yipeng Shipping. It left the Mediterranean Sea about a month ago and, after calling at the Russian port of Ust-Luga on November 11, headed in the opposite direction.

Although the fact that the ship was close to the damaged cables is not direct evidence of involvement, the incident is being compared to last year’s damage to the Nord Stream gas pipeline and the Balticcinnector telecommunications cable between Finland and Estonia. In that case, a Chinese vessel, the NewNew Polar Bear, was also suspected.

Earlier, USM reported that two NATO submarine cables were damaged in the Baltic Sea.

Initially, information appeared about a malfunction in the C-Lion1 submarine cable, which runs between Finland and Germany. Later, it became known about damage to the submarine cable between Lithuania and Sweden. This reduced the Internet bandwidth of Telia, which provides connections to Lithuania, by a third.