Due to the increased risk of sabotage by Russia over submarine cables to ‘punish the West for supporting Ukraine’, says intelligence chief NATO David Cutler.

“There are serious concerns that Russia could strike undersea cables and other critical infrastructure in Europe and North America in response to assistance provided to Ukraine by helper states,” Cutler told reporters.

“The Russians are more active than in previous years,” he said, adding that Russia has been mapping infrastructure both on land and at sea, mostly in the Atlantic. The NATO official added that China is also active in the market and in the development of underwater infrastructure.

Western and Russian officials are reportedly blaming each other for the Nord Stream gas pipeline explosions, while Swedish and Danish authorities investigating the attack have not named possible culprits. On September 26, 2022, pipeline explosions occurred in the exclusive economic zones of Sweden and Denmark.

In addition, five months ago, the EU and NATO joined forces to strengthen existing cooperation by establishing the EU-NATO Working Group on the Resilience of Critical Infrastructures to Strengthen Common Security.

“We need to increase the resilience of our critical infrastructure so we can always be ready. Today we successfully launched the first meeting of the Working Group on Sustainable Critical Infrastructure. Senior EU and NATO experts will work hand in hand to identify key threats to our critical infrastructure and work on a response,” said Ursula von der Leyen.