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Swedish cabinet says damage to Baltic Sea pipeline, communication cable related — Reuters

On October 17, Swedish Minister for Civil Defense Carl-Oskar Bohlin announced damage to the undersea telecommunication cable running between Estonia and Swedish

STOCKHOLM, October 23. /TASS/. Sweden's government announced that the telecommunication cable in the Baltic Sea were damaged "through external force" and that the damage to the Balticconnector pipeline and the Swedish-Estonian cable are related, Reuters reported.

"Estonia believes that damage to a telecommunication cable in the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Estonia is related to damage to a pipeline and cable between Estonia and Finland," Sweden's government said as quoted by the agency.

On October 17, Swedish Minister for Civil Defense Carl-Oskar Bohlin announced damage to the undersea telecommunication cable running between Estonia and Swedish. Later, the SVT television channel reported citing data from the Estonian police that its damage was of a mechanical nature. According to preliminary assessment, it is associated with damage to the Balticconnector gas pipeline and the fiber optic cable between Finland and Estonia. Based on this, it is concluded that all these damages are of the same nature.

The operation of an undersea gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia was suspended due to a suspected leak. Finnish authorities said at a press conference on October 10 that the damage to the gas pipeline, discovered early on the morning of October 9, was likely the result of external interference. Detective Chief of the National Bureau of Investigation Timo Kilpelainen said that the damage site was located in Finland's economic zone, in the central part of the Gulf of Finland.

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