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Latvia finds no link between vessel and Baltic Sea undersea cable damage

Latvia police say no evidence links a vessel to damage of an undersea Baltic Sea cable, as the investigation continues.

AuthorCynthia Du

Reading Time3 min

PublishedJanuary 6, 2026

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Headline

Latvia police say no evidence links a vessel to damage of an undersea Baltic Sea cable, as the investigation continues.

Context

• Latvian police say they found no evidence linking a vessel docked at Liepāja to recent damage of an underwater optical telecoms cable. • The Baltic Sea region remains on alert after multiple infrastructure incidents, highlighting broader concerns about undersea network resilience and geopolitical tensions. Latvian police have said that a vessel docked in the port of Liepāja is not connected with damage to an undersea optical telecoms cable in the Baltic Sea, though the broader investigation continues, authorities said on Monday.

Evidence

Pending intelligence enrichment.

Analysis

The damaged cable, which runs between Šventoji in neighbouring Lithuania and Liepāja in Latvia, was discovered on January 2, 2026. Police examined the suspect vessel’s anchor, technical equipment and logs, questioned crew members and said the information obtained so far does not indicate involvement in the incident . The police statement noted that the ship’s crew cooperated fully with investigators, but did not identify the vessel by name. Criminal proceedings remain open as authorities seek to determine how and why the fibre-optic link was severed. Latvia’s Prime Minister Evika Siliņa said that the outage had not affected Latvian communications users, and that national and allied services are working together to investigate the disruption. This development comes amid a spate of undersea cable problems across the Baltic Sea region. On December 31, 2025, Finnish police seized a cargo ship suspected of damaging a telecommunications cable between Helsinki and Estonia’s coast after its anchor was found dragging on the seabed. Two crew members were arrested and others were restricted while questioning continued.