Swedish authorities have seized a ship over the “aggravated sabotage” of an undersea fibre-optic cable linking Latvia with a strategically important island in Sweden.

Swedish authorities have seized a ship suspected of damaging a data cable running under the Baltic Sea to Latvia. The Vezhen - a Maltese-flagged ship - is now anchored outside the Swedish port of Karlskrona.

Authorities suspect that the cable linking Latvia and Sweden was damaged by an anchor being dragged across the seabed. Read more at straitstimes.com.

Latvia's prime minister says her government has reached out to Sweden and other Baltic Sea allies in NATO for assistance as it investigates the cause of damage to an underwater fiber-optic data cable running to Sweden.

The Nordic country has opened an investigation into the damage, just weeks after NATO stepped up its military presence in the area following a series of similar incidents.

Swedish authorities boarded a vessel suspected of being involved in an earlier underwater sabotage of cables in the Baltic Sea on Monday.

A subsea data cable between Latvia and Sweden was damaged early Sunday, sparking a criminal investigation, a third such incident in the Baltic Sea in the past three months.

As tensions rise, NATO has launched Baltic Sentry 2025 to enhance security and resilience. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has emphasized the need for greater coordination in protecting critical infrastructure from sabotage.

Mads Petersen, owner of Greenland-based startup Arctic Unmanned, sat in a car to keep warm while he tested a small drone at minus 43 degrees Celsius (minus 45 degrees Fahrenheit).

Norway, which is NATO's monitor for a vast 2 million sq km area of the North Atlantic used by the Russian Northern Fleet's nuclear submarines, says it will invest in long-range surveillance drones for a planned Arctic base.

An undersea fibre optic cable between Latvia and Sweden was damaged on Sunday morning, probably as a result of “external influence”, LSM, the Latvian public broadcaster, reported, citing the cable operator.