NATO allies met on Dec. 30 to address the security of critical infrastructure in the Baltic Sea, following damage to undersea cables connecting Estonia and Finland several days earlier.

General Mark Rutte says the military alliance will step up patrols in the Baltic Sea area as Finnish investigators work to establish whether a ship linked to Russia sabotaged undersea cables there this week.

Finnish police have discovered traces on the bottom of the Baltic Sea stretching for dozens of kilometers. It is believed that a tanker, which was carrying Russian oil, severed a power line and four telecommunications cables with its anchor,

NATO said on Friday it would boost its presence in the Baltic Sea after the suspected sabotage this week of an undersea power cable and four internet lines, while alliance member Estonia launched a naval operation to guard a parallel electricity link.

Police and media reports say that Finnish authorities have detained a Russia-linked ship as they investigate whether it damaged a Baltic Sea power cable and several data cables.

Baltic Sea countries have been on high alert after a string of outages of power cables, telecom links and gas pipelines since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022