Estonian government to meet as investigators probe interruption of undersea cable

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Estonia’s government was to hold an extraordinary meeting Thursday as investigators try to find out what disrupted a Baltic Sea power cable bringing electricity from Finland, Estonia’s prime minister said Thursday.

The Estlink-2 power went down just after noon on Wednesday. Officials have been on edge about undersea cables in the wake of damage to two data cables in November and Nord Stream gas pipeline, both of which have been termed sabotage.

“Despite holidays, many people in Estonia and Finland have been working for the last two days to identify the problem for the Estlink-2 disconnection,” Prime Minister Kristen Michal said on X. “My government will hold an extraordinary meeting this afternoon. We are in close contact with our Nordic-Baltic colleagues.”

Two data cables — one running between Finland and Germany and the other between Lithuania and Sweden — were severed in November. Germany’s defense minister said officials had to assume the incident was “sabotage,” but without providing evidence or saying who might have been responsible. The remark came during a speech in which he discussed hybrid warfare threats from Russia.

The Nord Stream natural gas pipelines that once brought natural gas from Russia to Germany were damaged by underwater explosions in September 2022. Authorities have termed it sabotage and launched criminal probes.

The Estlink-2 cable was down for much of this year to repair damage from a short circuit that may have been caused by the cable’s complex positioning, ERR reported.

Estonian network operator Elering says there was enough spare capacity to meet power needs on the Estonian side, public broadcaster ERR said on its website.