With its powerful camera, the French Navy surveillance plane scouring the Baltic Sea zoomed in on a cargo ship plowing the waters below — closer, closer and closer still until the camera operator could make out details on the vessel's front deck and smoke pouring from its chimney.

Sweden is investigating damage to a data cable linked to Latvia, the latest breach in the Baltic Sea region where European authorities are on high alert.

Sweden has opened a preliminary investigation into suspected aggravated “sabotage” and ordered the detention of a vessel in the Baltic Sea suspected of damaging an underwater fiber optic cable connecting Latvia and the Swedish island of Gotland earlier that day.

Swedish authorities boarded a Maltese-flagged ship seized in connection with the latest breach of cables running along the bottom of the Baltic Sea to begin an investigation into the matter, the country's security police said on Monday.

Russia has condemned the Western alliance for ramping up its naval presence in the so-called 'NATO lake' after alleged sabotage by Moscow-linked vessels.

A Bulgarian shipping company on Monday denied that one of its ships had intentionally damaged an underwater fiber optic cable connecting Latvia and the Swedish island of Gotland.

German and Danish leaders, Olaf Scholz and Mette Frederiksen, discussed in Berlin assistance to Ukraine and countering hybrid threats posed by Russia. — Ukrinform.

Intelligence officials in the U.S. and Europe have suggested that recent incidents damaging critical cables in the Baltic Sea were accidental, according to a Washington Post report. Western geostrategic self-deception has overly emphasized fears of escalation and cornering Russia.

The Danish PM's tour of three capitals betrayed the nervousness felt in Denmark over Trump's repeated comments.

Swedish authorities are investigating a suspected sabotage of an underwater fiber optic cable connecting Latvia and the Swedish island of Gotland. The investigation involves the National Police Operations Department,

"Workers intend to preserve the damaged pipeline, installing special blinds on each open end of the pipe in order to prevent further gas release and ingress of oxygen-saturated seawater," the regulato