NATO will increase its patrols in the Baltic Sea with planes, drones and ships after a pipeline and communications cable between Finland and Estonia were damaged. The treaty organization Thursday. Four NATO minesweepers are heading to the area.
After the pipeline appeared to be leaking last week, Finnish authorities speculated about sabotage. The Prime Minister spoke of “external activities”, the Norsar earthquake institute detected a “probable explosion”, and Finnish intelligence services did not want to rule out that it was a “state actor”, according to the Reuters news agency. Whether this is true is still being investigated.
It will take at least another five months until the damaged Balticconnector pipe is repaired. According to the Finnish newspaper Iltalehti, Prime Minister Orpo said that there is no reason to worry about the energy supply. Finland now has one source of gas left, says an analyst Politico: a terminal for liquid gas, which was introduced to replace Russian gas.