Ensuring continuous protection of undersea cables and gas pipelines is practically impossible, said the commander of the intelligence center of the Estonian Defense Forces, Col. Ants Kiviselg, commenting on the failure of the Balticconnector gas pipeline connecting Finland and Estonia. He stressed the need to review the Estonian seabed to strengthen its monitoring.
– We have our own list of ships that are dangerous to us and whose movements we monitor. So we can say that ships sailing in the Baltic Sea do not go unnoticed by us, noted the commander of the intelligence center of the Estonian Defense Forces, Col. Ants Kiviselg.
– There are unprotected undersea cables or gas pipelines all over the world. They cross international waters and national exclusive economic zones, so protecting this infrastructure is not physically possible, admitted a representative of the Estonian armed forces.
Kiviselg stressed the need to review the Estonian seabed to strengthen its monitoring.
Failure of the Balticconnector gas pipeline
On Sunday night, there was a drop in pressure in the Balticconnector undersea gas pipeline connecting Finland with Estonia. The Estonian ministers of defense, foreign affairs and climate indicated that humans were responsible for the damage to the gas pipeline.
There was a failure in the Balticconnector undersea gas pipelineENEX
The Prime Minister of Finland, Petteri Orpo, also stated that the failure of the undersea gas pipeline was not the result of its normal use and was probably caused by external forces.
The Marine Traffic analytical service that tracks ship movements noticed that the Russian ship SVG Flot was in the vicinity of the gas pipeline at the time of the failure.
Main photo source: ENEX