What happened

An active privately owned optical-fibre cable between Liepāja, Latvia, and Šventoji, Lithuania, was damaged in Latvian territorial waters near Liepāja. Latvian State Police opened a criminal investigation and boarded a vessel after coast-guard analysis showed it had passed above an inactive cable and then changed course toward the active cable. Police inspected the vessel, its anchor, equipment and logs and interviewed crew members. Their 6 January update said the evidence obtained did not link that vessel to the damage; the wider investigation into how the cable was damaged continued. The public evidence therefore supports a cable fault and criminal investigation, but not deliberate sabotage, Russian involvement or responsibility by the examined vessel. The marker follows the published endpoints and is approximate, because the damage coordinates were not released.

When cited sources give different casualty, damage or spill figures for this event, they’re reported side by side above rather than merged into one number. See how confidence levels work.