Danish military says it’s staying close to Chinese ship after data cable breaches

STOCKHOLM — 

The Danish subject said connected Wednesday that it was staying adjacent to a Chinese vessel presently sitting idle successful Danish waters, days aft 2 fiber-optic information telecommunication cables successful the Baltic Sea were severed.

Chinese bulk bearer Yi Peng 3 was anchored successful the Kattegat strait betwixt Denmark and Sweden connected Wednesday, with a Danish navy patrol vessel astatine anchor nearby, MarineTraffic vas tracking information showed.

"The Danish Defence tin corroborate that we are contiguous successful the country adjacent the Chinese vessel Yi Peng 3," the subject said successful a station connected societal media level X, adding it had nary further comments.

It is uncommon for Denmark's subject to remark publically connected idiosyncratic vessels traveling successful Danish waters. It did not notation the cablegram breaches oregon accidental wherefore it was staying with the ship.

The Chinese vessel near the Russian larboard of Ust-Luga connected November 15 and was successful the areas wherever the cablegram damages occurred, according to postulation data, which showed different ships to besides person been successful the areas.

One cablegram moving betwixt Sweden and Lithuania was chopped connected Sunday, and different 1 betwixt Finland and Germany was severed little than 24 hours later.

The breaches happened successful Sweden's exclusive economical zone, and Swedish prosecutors started a preliminary probe Tuesday connected suspicion of imaginable sabotage.

Swedish Civil Defence Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin told Reuters connected Tuesday that the country's equipped forces and seashore defender had picked up vessel movements that corresponded with the interruption of 2 telecoms cables successful the Baltic Sea.

A Chinese authorities spokesperson told a regular quality briefing connected Wednesday that it ever required its vessels to abide by applicable laws and regulations.

"We besides connect large value to the extortion of seabed infrastructure and, unneurotic with the planetary community, we are actively promoting the operation and extortion of submarine cables and different planetary accusation infrastructures," the spokesperson said.

Russia dismissed connected Wednesday immoderate proposition that it had been progressive successful damaging the 2 cables.

European governments accused Russia connected Tuesday of escalating hybrid attacks connected Ukraine's Western allies, but they stopped abbreviated of straight accusing Russia of destroying the cables.

Asked astir the substance connected Wednesday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told a regular quality briefing: "It is rather absurd to proceed to blasted Russia for everything without immoderate reason."