Europe's Underwater Cables Were Cut. What Happens Next?

#NotWhatYouThink #NWYT
Theories and facts about what happened to two underwater communication cables in the Baltic Sea on November 18th, 2024.

00:00 What Happened to two European underwater cables
1:25 Why underwater communication cables are incredibly important
4:10 Various ways underwater cables can get damaged
5:40 Prime suspect of cutting two European underwater cable is Yi Peng 3
6:34 The Russian Trail
9:05 What do damaged cables have to do with Ukraine?

Music:
Mortal Blow - Dream Cave
Orcas - Marten Moses
Nordkap - Martin Landh
Beyond the Mountains - Experia
Lunch Break in Milan - Trabant 33
Nitrous Oxide - Prozody
Truce No More - Dream Cave

Footage:
Select images/videos from Getty Images
Shutterstock
Cinia
Telia Lithuania
Divers Institute of Technology
Boskalis
ESB International
US Department of Defense

Note: "The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement."

[launchpending]

can we rule out an impressively large crab

[spyrodragonsbane]

That's not what you think.. except it's exactly what you think

[dx-ekvr]

Once is accidental, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action.



...Say, how many times has this happened so far?

[Ed_Stuckey]

_Two countries most affected by these breaks, Sweden and Finland_
What a coincidence. Those are the two countries that joined NATO after the Russian aggression against Ukraine.

[randycook]

The Dutch confirmed a Chinese ship with a Russian captain exiting the Baltic Sea on its way to Egypt. Marine tracking shows the ship was in the vicinity of each break at the same time as the disruptions. This was not an accident, but Russia retaliation for NATO support to Ukraine.

[Nikolai]

To my knowledge the largest shark species in the baltic sea is the catfish...

[mnxs]

Dane here. Most recent news is that the suspect ship, Yi Peng 3, has stopped at anchor in the _Kattegat_ (the ocean between Denmark, Sweden and Norway)... suspiciously, _just a few meters outside Danish territorial waters, _ but inside our Exclusive Economic Zone. Meaning that we can't really legally just board the damn thing; it seems clear to me that they are taunting us. As of now, they are still being followed closely by our Navy, by request of the Swedes.

[petrikallio]

1year ago there was another chinese ship in the area where data cable and gas pipe got damaged between Finland and Estonia. That ship was photoed to be missing her anchor

[Tiax]

How come this isn't what I think? I think it's a Chinese ship being told by Russia to damage the cables. It's exactly what it is.
The Chinese already cut the gas pipeline between Estonia and Finland.

The ship disabled its transponder and circled around for an hour and a half before continuing.

[nullcntext]

Casually dropping in the Pornhub video intro music: Genius.

[MrJontte]

Well, you know what they say: when russia accuses someone else of something, they are, in fact, planning to do said something themselves.

[Hiddensecret]

These incidents are reminiscent of previous events where undersea infrastructure was compromised. In 2022, the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea were damaged in an act of sabotage. Additionally, in October 2023, a telecommunications cable between Sweden and Estonia was purposefully damaged.

[neondemon]

This is like when a serial killer cuts your phone cable before entering.

[pfoe]

In this instance it's exactly what I thought!
As an aside, you got this up in record time, great stuff

[Spacedsco]

6:58 these where not oil pipelines but gas pipelines

[ParisKarlaPrecious]

whatsinmy AI fixes this. Theories on cut Baltic cables.

[griffinchalfa]

Has anyone else noticed the ship in the thumbnail is completely under the water ?

[vincentleeadams]

It’s almost like we’re in a war or something…

[TheBestDog]

Severing communication links often signals the onset of conflict

[filipfrank]

Optical cables have repeaters 1. because fiber have losses / simply light is too low over long distance, to amplify signal. 2. due to efects like dispersion, which make pulses longer, so they can overlap. And this repeaters also renew this and send again nice pulses. 🙂