Germany has said that “sabotage” was likely behind the recent damage to communications cables in the Baltic Sea, as Sweden reported damage to a second underwater link.

The severing of cables between Finland and Germany and from Sweden to Lithuania were a “clear sign that something is going on”, Boris Pistorius, Germany’s defence minister, said.

“Nobody believes that these cables were accidentally severed,” Mr Pistorius added on the sidelines of a meeting of EU ministers in Brussels.

“We have to say, without knowing exactly who it came from, that this is a hybrid action. We also have to assume, without knowing it yet, that it was sabotage,” he said.