NATO foils Russian plot to sabotage Arctic undersea cables

NATO members in northern Europe said on Thursday that a joint surveillance operation had disrupted an attempt to interfere with undersea communications and power cables in Arctic waters.

Officials described increased vessel activity near cable corridors over recent weeks and said allied navies and coastguards had tracked and shadowed the vessels involved. No damage to cables has been reported.

Russia's foreign ministry rejected the accounts, describing them as unfounded.

Why undersea cables are exposed

More than nine-tenths of intercontinental data traffic runs through subsea fibre. Cables sit unprotected on the seabed for most of their length, and repair vessels are few. Damage that takes hours to cause can take weeks to fix.

Alliance response

Since the Baltic cable incidents of recent years, NATO has expanded patrols and data-sharing on critical undersea infrastructure. Officials this evening said monitoring in Arctic waters had been stepped up further.

Compiled from statements by allied governments and NATO, and from Reuters reporting. Verification cut-off 22:30 BST on 10 September 2026. Attribution of intent in the maritime domain is difficult to establish independently, and the accounts here are the alliance's own.