C-Lion1 - Cable Break

On 21 February 2025, Finnish telecommunications operator Cinia disclosed that its C-Lion1 submarine fibre-optic cable, which links Finland and Germany along the floor of the Baltic Sea, had sustained fresh damage within Sweden's exclusive economic zone near the island of Gotland. According to Cinia, which is majority state-owned, the damage was minor, and the company's monitoring systems detected it without any interruption to data traffic carried over the cable.

Cinia subsequently assessed, as reported by the Insurance Journal, that the fault most likely occurred earlier, around 02:37 Finnish time on 26 January 2025, rather than in February when it was confirmed. That timing closely coincided with an outage on a nearby subsea cable linking Sweden and Latvia. Swedish authorities later attributed the Sweden–Latvia cable break to anchor damage caused by the Maltese-flagged bulk carrier Vezhen, which a Swedish prosecutor classified as accidental rather than deliberate.

Swedish police opened a preliminary investigation into suspected sabotage, a designation that grants investigators broader legal tools, and the Swedish Coast Guard dispatched a vessel to assist at the site off Gotland. Finnish police opened a parallel inquiry. The incident marked the third time in recent months that the C-Lion1 cable had been damaged, following complete severances in November and December 2024.

The cause of the C-Lion1 damage has not been officially determined, and no perpetrator or vessel has been publicly linked to this specific fault. While the incident occurred amid a pattern of Baltic Sea cable disruptions widely suspected of involving Russia-linked shadow-fleet anchor-dragging, no Russian or state involvement has been confirmed here. The reported 26 January timing and proximity to the anchor-caused Sweden–Latvia break leave accidental causation a live possibility. Suspected sabotage remains an investigative classification, not a proven finding.