BRUSSELS, November 19. /TASS/. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has stated that the damage to the C-Lion1 telecommunications cable, lying on the Baltic Sea floor, could likely have resulted from sabotage.

"This is a very clear signal (cable rupture - TASS) that something is happening there. No one believes that this cable was accidentally broken. I am not inclined to accept the explanation that the damage was caused by an anchor hitting the cable," Pistorius told reporters in Brussels.

"Without knowing the exact culprit, we must recognize this as a hybrid action and treat it as a probable case of sabotage," the minister added.

Earlier, the Ilta-Sanomat newspaper reported that the C-Lion1 cable, which runs along the Nord Stream pipeline, had been damaged.

On Monday, the press service of the Finnish state-owned telecommunications infrastructure operator Cinia reported the C-Lion1's failure. The cable is 1,173 kilometers long and was commissioned in 2016. It connects Helsinki and Germany's Rostock.

The German and Finnish foreign ministries, in a joint statement, expressed concern over the incident and confirmed that a thorough investigation was underway.