Author: Barbara Erling and Marek Strzelecki
WARSAW (Reuters) – Russia is disrupting mobile communications and ship tracking data in the Baltic Sea, endangering ships and energy supplies to test how Western powers will respond, a Polish admiral in charge of the region said.
Lieutenant General Krzysztof Jaworski said Moscow was systematically using such tactics to conceal the movements of its own ships and disrupt the actions of other countries in waters bordering eight NATO countries and Russia.
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“Hybrid warfare in the Baltics is the biggest challenge we face,” Jaworski told Reuters in an interview last week, referring to the practice of launching conventional attacks while trying to disrupt politics, energy supplies and other systems.
“We are talking about Russian aggression. They are trying to disrupt our lives,” added Jaworski, commander of the Polish Naval Warfare Center. “They’re testing us as well, and we as a league (see) how far they can go.”
The Russian Defense Ministry could not be reached for comment. Russia denies accusations that it undermines Western countries and accuses the West of trying to sow discord within Russia.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, there have been at least three incidents of possible sabotage of dozens of telecommunications cables and critical gas pipelines running along the relatively shallow seafloor.
Bruno Karl, the head of Germany’s foreign intelligence service, said last month that Russia’s sabotage of Western targets could eventually prompt Nato to consider invoking the alliance’s Article 5 mutual defense clause.
Jaworski said that since the destruction of the Nord Stream pipeline in 2022, Russian merchant ships have turned off their Automatic Identification System (AIS) signals, which enable electronic navigation, dozens of times.
He said this violated maritime law, allowed the vessel to move undetected and endangered other vessels in the area.
Baltic Sea Balance
He added that there were also attempts to block the identification and tracking systems of other ships and disrupt them through false readings. “We are dealing with interference in mobile and location data as well as false echo events.”
The Finnish Coast Guard made a similar complaint in October and said the disruption caused the vessel to become disoriented.
Jaworski said it was impossible to continuously monitor all Polish waters in the Baltic Sea, although he believed Poland was safe thanks to its own actions and those of its allies.
He said NATO would maintain its advantage in the region even if Russia sends more ships to the region, adding that NATO could move frigates normally deployed in the Atlantic and Mediterranean to the region to maintain balance.
Last week, Jacek Siewiera, the head of Poland’s security service, said he expected Russia to move its naval vessels, including missile frigates currently in Syria, to St. Petersburg, a journey that would take them into the Baltic Sea .
“Of course, every additional powerful vessel poses a potential threat,” Jaworski said.
Asked how Poland and its allies would respond to any such action, he said they would be limited to observation, surveillance and presence at sea “so that potential adversaries can also see that we are ready to act”.
Most of the natural gas used in Poland is received from Norway via the Baltic Sea in the form of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and pipeline transport.
(Reporting by Barbara Erling and Marek Strzelecki; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
