Germany blamed sabotage for the severing of two undersea internet cables as European leaders condemned Russia for escalating “hybrid attacks” on the West. Boris Pistorius, the defence minister, said that “nobody believes these cables were accidentally severed” after the Finnish owner of the C-Lion1 data cable announced on Monday that it had been cut. Mr Pistorius did not explicitly blame Russia for the damage to the cable but referred to the incident as a “hybrid action”, a phrase used by Western officials to describe Russia’s recent attacks on European infrastructure. “We must therefore state – without knowing exactly who is behind it – that this is a hybrid action,” Mr Pistorius, a member of the chancellor’s SPD party, said. Both countries have offered to support the investigation into how the cable was severed.

Source: Stuff November 19, 2024 21:13 UTC