NATO said on Friday it will 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.

Baltic Sea nations are on high alert for acts of sabotage following a string of outages of power cables, telecom links and gas pipelines since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, although subsea equipment is also subject to technical malfunction and accidents.

A power cable connecting Finland and Estonia under the Baltic Sea suffered a power outage on Wednesday, prompting an investigation, according to the Finnish prime minister. The electrical transmission through the Estline 2 connection between the two European nations was cut on Wednesday afternoon local time.

NATO will bolster its military presence in the Baltic Sea after the suspected sabotage of an undersea power cable linking Finland and Estonia this week, the Western military alliance's chief Mark Rutte said on Friday.

General Mark Rutte said Friday that NATO will "enhance its military presence in the Baltic Sea". Estonia's navy has begun patrolling an undersea cable supplying energy from Finland

Separately, Estonia began patrols to protect an undersea cable supplying electricity from Finland following the damage caused on Christmas Day.

The patrol boat Raju's main task will be to protect the Estlink 1 power cable Nato has said it will enhance its military presence in the Baltic Sea, and Estonia has sent a patrol ship to protect its Estlink1 undersea power cable,

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has said that the Alliance will increase its presence in the Baltic Sea following an incident involving damage to electric cables. Source: Rutte after a conversation with Finnish President Alexander Stubb,