Multiple undersea cables and pipelines in the Baltic Sea have been damaged in recent months, raising suspicions of sabotage.

An undersea data cable between Latvia and Sweden was damaged early on January 26, the latest in a series of similar incidents in the Baltic Sea in which critical seabed energy and communications lines are believed to have been severed by ships traveling to or from Russian ports.

Direct challenges to Baltic security include regional aggression waged by Russia and policies of Belarus complementing the aims of Moscow. The conventional warfare in countries across the border from the Eastern Flank of NATO and the EU is aggravated by civilian displacement and migration from Ukraine and the Middle East.

Shipping firms may need to pay a fee to use the Baltic Sea, one of the world's busiest shipping routes, in order to cover the high costs of protecting undersea cables, Estonia's defence minister said on Wednesday following a spate of breaches.

NATO is ratcheting up its guard against suspected attempts to sabotage underwater energy and data cables and pipelines that crisscross the Baltic Sea.

Sweden said Sunday that it seized a vessel suspected of damaging a fiber-optic cable under the Baltic Sea that links the country to Latvia, in what authorities are investigating as an act of "aggravated sabotage.

RIGA, Latvia — Swedish prosecutors announced ... “sabotage” and ordered the detention of a vessel in the Baltic Sea suspected of damaging an underwater fiber optic cable connecting Latvia ...

The Stockholm prosecutor's office announced on Sunday evening the initiation of an investigation into a possible sabotage in the Baltic Sea and the seizure of a ship suspected of damaging an underwater cable between Sweden and Latvia.

NATO is deploying eyes in the sky and on the Baltic Sea to protect cables and pipelines that stitch together the nine countries with shores on Baltic waters.

RIGA - Finland's message regarding the damaged submarine fiber-optic cable linking Latvia and Sweden is clear - together we are stronger, Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen told reporters in Riga on Tuesday.

Latvia said it had dispatched a warship on Sunday after damage to a fibre optic cable to Sweden that may have been due to external