Cables connecting Finland with Germany, and Lithuania with Sweden, have been disrupted, just weeks after the United States warned that it had detected increased Russian military activity around key undersea cables.

Two undersea fibre-optic communications cables in the Baltic Sea, including one linking Finland and Germany, were severed, raising suspicions of sabotage by bad actors, countries and companies involved said on Monday.

Authorities in Finland say a submarine data communications cable across the Baltic Sea between Finland and Germany has broken and the cause for the disruption is being investigated