GERMAN officials believe that damage to two data cables under the Baltic Sea was caused by sabotage, Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said today.

He pointed the finger of suspicion at Russia, while admitting that he had no proof.

Damage to the C-Lion1 cable, which runs from the Finnish capital Helsinki to the German port city of Rostock, was detected on Monday. Another cable between Lithuania and Sweden was also damaged.

Speaking in Brussels, Mr Pistorius alleged that Russia poses not just a military but also a hybrid threat. 

“No-one believes these cables were severed by mistake and I also don’t want to believe versions that it was anchors that, by chance, caused damage to these cables,” he said.

“So we have to state — without knowing in concrete terms who it came from — that this is a hybrid action. And we also have to assume — without already knowing it, obviously — that this is sabotage.”

The attitude contrasts to Germany’s reticence on 2022’s sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines from Russia. While it has issued an arrest warrant for a Ukrainian national over that attack, it has addressed claims — including by award-winning journalist Seymour Hersh — that it was the work of the United States.