Shipping firms may need to pay a fee to use the Baltic Sea, one of the world's busiest shipping routes, in order to cover the high costs of protecting undersea cables, Estonia's defence minister said on Wednesday following a spate of breaches.

After a series of suspected undersea cable cuttings, NATO has launched a new surveillance and deterrence mission to protect critical infrastructure under the Baltic Sea.

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.

Sweden is investigating damage to a data cable linked to Latvia, the latest breach in the Baltic Sea region where European authorities are on high alert.

Sweden has opened a preliminary investigation into suspected aggravated “sabotage” and ordered the detention of a vessel in the Baltic Sea suspected of damaging an underwater fiber optic cable connecting Latvia and the Swedish island of Gotland earlier that day.

NATO is deploying eyes in the sky and on the Baltic Sea to protect cables and pipelines that stitch together the nine countries with shores on Baltic waters

There has been a sharp rise in damage to undersea cables in the Baltic, with at least 11 incidents reported since October 2023.

NATO is ratcheting up its guard against suspected attempts to sabotage underwater energy and data cables and pipelines that crisscross the Baltic Sea.

With its powerful camera, the French Navy surveillance plane scouring the Baltic Sea zoomed in on a cargo ship plowing the waters below —