As they plied the gray, icy waters of the Baltic Sea west of Russia on Thursday, the crew of the Estonian minehunter EML Sakala kept a careful eye on any vessels slowing down suspiciously or suddenly changing course.

Finnish police have reported finding the anchor responsible for severing an undersea internet cable connecting Finland to Estonia. Last month, Finland detained the Eagle S, an oil tanker transporting Russian oil,

Finnish police said on Tuesday they had recovered a lost anchor from the seabed as part of an investigation of suspected sabotage against power and internet cables in the Baltic Sea.

Estonia said it would set aside €100 million ($103 million) for a new gas-fired power plant to boost energy security after repeated damage to subsea electricity connections.

General Mark Rutte says the military alliance will step up patrols in the Baltic Sea area as Finnish investigators work to establish whether a ship linked to Russia sabotaged undersea cables there this week.

As they plied the gray, icy waters of the Baltic Sea west of Russia on Thursday, the crew of the Estonian minehunter EML Sakala kept a careful eye on any vessels slowing down suspiciously or suddenly changing course.

The German defence minister, Boris Pistorius, warned about the threats related to ongoing hybrid attacks by Russia in the Baltic Sea. "This is happening every day," he said during a visit to the naval air base in Nordholz,

If the Russians see that we are present there, the likelihood of such sabotage acts immediately decreases," said one navy commander.