See the Chinese cargo ship suspected of sabotaging critical undersea cables between 4 NATO countries

Russia accused of waging ‘hybrid warfare’

Yi Peng 3’s origin of departure raised concerns over potential Russian involvement in the incident, possibly in connection to the war in Ukraine.

Though the Chinese vessel and associated parties are under investigation over damaged cables, Western officials believe that Russian intelligence agencies orchestrated the incident.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied Russian involvement, calling the accusations “absurd.”

“It’s quite absurd to keep blaming Russia for everything without any grounds. It is laughable in the context of the lack of any reaction to Ukraine’s sabotage activities in the Baltic Sea,” Peskov told reporters on November 20.

Foreign ministers of Finland and Germany released a joint statement on November 18, saying they were “deeply concerned” about the incident, which “immediately raises suspicions of intentional damage [and] speaks volumes about the volatility of our times.

“Our European security is not only under threat from Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine but also from hybrid warfare by malicious actors,” the ministers said in the statement. “Safeguarding our shared critical infrastructure is vital to our security and the resilience of our societies.”

The incident in the Baltic Sea comes just weeks after US officials warned that Russia would likely target undersea cables and other critical maritime infrastructure.

“We are concerned about heightened Russian naval activity worldwide and that Russia’s decision calculus for damaging US and allied undersea critical infrastructure may be changing,” a US official told CNN in September.

The official added that “Russia is continuing to develop naval capabilities for undersea sabotage” through its dedicated military unit known as the General Staff Main Directorate for Deep Sea Research, or GUGI.