General Mark Rutte says the military alliance will step up patrols in the Baltic Sea area as Finnish investigators work to establish whether a ship linked to Russia sabotaged undersea cables there this week.

Finnish police said on Sunday they had found tracks that drag on for dozens of kilometres along the bottom of the Baltic Sea where a tanker carrying Russian oil is suspected of breaking a power line and four telecoms cables with its anchor.

NATO member states have decided to enhance the bloc’s military presence in the Baltic Sea. The decision was made to protect critical infrastructure following recent damage to underwater cables connecting Estonia and Finland,

Police and media reports say that Finnish authorities have detained a Russia-linked ship as they investigate whether it damaged a Baltic Sea power cable and several data cables.

Baltic Sea countries have been on high alert after a string of outages of power cables, telecom links and gas pipelines since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022

NATO said on Friday it would boost its presence in the Baltic Sea after the suspected sabotage this week of an undersea power cable and four internet lines, while alliance member Estonia launched a naval operation to guard a parallel electricity link.

Finland says a ship affiliated with Russia's "shadow fleet" is linked to a 60-mile-long anchor drag mark on the seafloor. A power cable in the Baltic Sea was severed last week.

This photo provided by Rajavartiosto (Finnish Border Guard) on Thursday, 26 Dec 2024, shows the oil tanker Eagle S, background, and the Finnish Border Guard ship Turva.