The Nordic country has opened an investigation into the damage, just weeks after NATO stepped up its military presence in the area following a series of similar incidents.

Numerous incidents of suspected Russian-linked sabotage of undersea cables in the Baltic Sea has seen tensions rise among nearby countries, and an increased Nato presence.

SWEDISH authorities have seized a ship suspected of causing damage to underwater data cables which sparked sabotage fears. A Maltese-flagged ship – The Vezhen – was taken after

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.

General Kaspars Pudans, the new commander of the Latvian armed forces, admitted that it is not possible to fully oversee the Baltic Sea's underwater infrastructure. This was in response to the recent damage to the fibre optic cable between Latvia and Gotland.

Swedish authorities have seized a ship suspected of damaging a data cable running under the Baltic Sea to Latvia. The Vezhen - a Maltese-flagged ship - is now anchored outside the Swedish port of Karlskrona.

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.

Sweden detained a vessel suspected of damaging a subsea data cable connecting it with Latvia, the third such incident in the Baltic Sea in the past three months.

Swedish authorities boarded a vessel suspected of being involved in an earlier underwater sabotage of cables in the Baltic Sea on Monday.

The undersea cable is based in the Baltic Sea, and may have been deliberately damaged on Sunday, according to officials in Sweden.

Lithuania and Estonia have become the first NATO members to pledge an increase in defense spending to five percent of GDP, according to a report.