Baltic Sea

Pilot Lt. Terry (surname withheld by the French military) inspects the wheels of a French Navy Atlantique 2 surveillance plane before its takeoff from Hamburg, Germany, Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025, on a NATO patrol over the Baltic Sea as part of the military's alliance "Baltic Sentry" mission to protect undersea cables and pipelines from sabotage. (AP Photo/John Leicester)

At least 11 Baltic cables have been damaged in 15 months, prompting NATO to up its guard

NATO is deploying eyes in the sky and on the Baltic Sea to protect cables and pipelines that stitch together the nine countries with shores on Baltic waters.

The cargo ship Vezhen is anchored outside Karlskrona, Sweden, Monday, Jan. 27, 2025, for examination by Swedish authorities. (Johan Nilsson/TT News Agency via AP)

A Bulgarian shipping company denies its vessel sabotaged a Baltic Sea cable

The cargo ship Vezhen is anchored outside Karlskrona, Sweden, Monday, Jan. 27, 2025, for examination by Swedish authorities. (Johan Nilsson/TT News Agency via AP)

Sweden seizes vessel suspected of ‘sabotage’ after undersea data cable rupture in Baltic Sea

Estonian naval ships sail in the Baltic Sea on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025, as part of stepped-up NATO patrols in the region following suspected sabotage of undersea cables. (AP Photo/Hendrik Osula)

NATO announces a new mission to protect undersea cables in the Baltic Sea region

The oil tanker "Eventin" off the coast of the island of Rügen, Germany, Friday Jan. 10, 2025. (Stefan Sauer/dpa via AP)

Germany calls a Russian oil tanker adrift in the Baltic Sea a threat to security

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New NATO patrols watch over infrastructure under the Baltic Sea, AP explains

The operation follows a string of incidents that have heightened fears of Russian sabotage and spying in the strategic region. “Fourteen men and women, French sailors were on board this French Navy aircraft an Atlantic 2 and it’s flying over the Baltic Sea,” AP’s John Leicester explains.

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Estonia steps up patrols in Baltic Sea in show of force after suspected cable sabotage

Finland stops Russia-linked vessel over damaged undersea power cable in Baltic Sea

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NATO chief announces launch of a new operation to protect undersea cables in the Baltic Sea region

An Estonian naval ship sails in the Baltic Sea on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025, as part of stepped-up NATO patrols in the region following suspected sabotage of undersea cables. (AP Photo/Hendrik Osula)

Estonia steps up patrols in the icy Baltic Sea in a show of force after suspected cable sabotage

Arnold Ruutel stands outside the Estonia Concert Hall where delegates assembled in Tallinn, Friday, Sept. 21, 2001. (AP Photo/Peeter Langovits, File)

Former Estonian President Arnold Rüütel dies at age 96

Finnish Coast Guard stopped a small boat which tried to reach the Cook Islands-registered oil tanker Eagle S anchored near the Kilpilahti port in Porvoo, on the Gulf of Finland, Monday, Dec. 30, 2024. (Jussi Nukari/Lehtikuva via AP)

Finnish investigators find an anchor drag mark on the Baltic seabed after suspicious cable damage

Finnish President Alexander Stubb meets with media to make comments on the Finland-Estonia electrical link Estlink cable disruption, at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland, Friday Dec. 27, 2024. (Vesa Moilanen/Lehtikuva via AP)

NATO will step up Baltic Sea patrols as Finland probes the possible sabotage of undersea cables

This photo provided by Rajavartiosto (Finnish Border Guard) on Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024, shows the oil tanker Eagle S, background, and the Finnish Border Guard ship Turva at sea outside Porkkalanniemi, Finland. The Eagle S was sailing at the same time in the area where the Finland-Estonia electrical link was disrupted on Wednesday. (Rajavartiosto via AP)

Finland stops Russia-linked vessel over damaged undersea power cable in Baltic Sea

Finland's Prime Minister Petteri Orpo arrives for an EU summit at the European Council building in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert, File)

Undersea power cable linking Finland and Estonia hit by outage, prompting investigation

Polish ship Dar Mlodziezy (left) and Pogoria during the opening day of the Tall Ships Races event in Helsinki, Finland, Thursday July 4, 2024. Dozens of impressive classic sailing vessels from 13 different countries currently plying the Baltic Sea arrived at the Finnish capital on Thursday at the end of the first leg of the Tall Ships Races that kicked off from the Lithuanian port city of Klaipeda late June. (Aada Pet'j'/Lehtikuva via AP)

Tall Ships Races with 50 classic vessels seek to draw attention to Baltic Sea’s alarming condition

FILE - Men fish near the fortresses of Narva, left, in Estonia, and Ivangorod, right, in Russia, on Wednesday, May 24, 2023. The EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell says the removal of 25 Estonian buoys by Russian border guards on a river separating the Baltic country from Russia was “unacceptable.” (AP Photo/Jim Heintz, File)

European Union criticizes Russia for removing Estonian buoys, demand an explanation from Moscow

Trains collide in northern Polish city, injuring 5 people

Some tracks at Hamburg Central Station are temporarily empty during various train cancellations and delays in Hamburg, Friday Sept. 8, 2023. A series of fires hit railway infrastructure in the German city of Hamburg overnight, causing widespread disruption to trains between Hamburg and Berlin and between the port city and the Baltic Sea coast. Police said they suspect that the damage was politically motivated. (Gregor Fischer/dpa via AP)

Rail infrastructure in Hamburg is damaged by fires. Police suspect a political motive

FILE - In this picture provided by Swedish Coast Guard, a leak from Nord Stream 2 is seen, on Sept. 28, 2022. Germany's top security official says she hopes prosecutors will find sufficent evidence to indict whoever carried out last year's attack on the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea. (Swedish Coast Guard via AP, File)

German minister says she hopes someone is indicted for the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines

Russian warplane on training mission crashes in Kaliningrad, killing its pilots

Russia launches Baltic naval drills, ratcheting up tensions with European neighbors

This image released by Sideshow/Janus Films shows Thomas Schubert, left, and Paula Beer in a scene from "Afire."

Movie Review: Tensions boil over in Christian Petzold’s haunting summer drama ‘Afire’

FILE - In this Nov. 18, 1994 file photo, the bow door of the sunken passenger ferry M/S Estonia is lifted up from the bottom of the sea, off Uto Island, in the Baltic Sea. A research vessel with investigators from Sweden and Estonia is scheduled to arrive at the site of the wreckage of a passenger ferry in the Baltic Sea for underwater studies that are hoped to produce new information about a maritime disaster that occurred nearly 30 years ago. (Jaakko Aiikainen/Lehtikuva via AP, File)

Researchers hope undersea work yields new information on 1994 Baltic Sea ferry disaster

FILE - In this picture provided by Swedish Coast Guard, a leak from Nord Stream 2 is seen, on Sept. 28, 2022. Investigators found traces of subsea explosives in samples taken from a boat that has been one aspect of a probe into the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines under the Baltic Sea last year, European diplomats have told the U.N. Security Council. (Swedish Coast Guard via AP, File)

Traces of explosives found in yacht in Nord Stream sabotage investigation, diplomats say

Polish child who fell overboard from ferry and mother who jumped in afterward are dead

Sweden rescues child who fell overboard from Baltic Sea ferry and mother who jumped in the water