Catherine Field: France correspondent on fears of new sabotage incident linked to Russia

Just months after what was believed to have been the sabotage of two telecoms cables linking Sweden and Denmark, authorities in Finland say an undersea power cable linking Finland and Estonia has ‘broken down’ on Christmas Day. 

Tensions in the Baltic have mounted since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. 

France correspondent Catherine Field tells Tim Beveridge “the fact that these sabotage events are happening so regularly now is of concern.” 

“The suspicion is that not just Russian vessels are dragging their anchor over these vital infrastructure cables, but also Chinese vessels.” 

 

Meanwhile, there was no Christmas respite in Ukraine.  

At least 180 missiles and drones were launched at Ukraine’s energy sector by Russia on Christmas Day. 

Western allies scrambled jets when it appeared some of those missiles had passed through NATO airspace. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
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Speaker 2 (00:25):
Yes, in time to go to France and say good
morning to Catherine Field, Catherine.

Speaker 3 (00:29):
High, good morning, Term.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Hey do you have a good Christmas?

Speaker 4 (00:34):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (00:35):
I had to.

Speaker 4 (00:35):
Hope on Christmas Eve though this has been the first
Christmas and five years that they've had midnight Mass that
not so done.

Speaker 3 (00:43):
So you know, gave is a big occasion here.

Speaker 4 (00:46):
Plus it is your usual security alerts. But I promise
your term as soon as they've finished talking to you,
I will hang up and I will head home and
have family Christmas dinner.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Excellent. Fears of a new incident are sabotage linked to
Russia again, Sweden and Denmark, et cetera.

Speaker 3 (01:02):
We've seen before, Yeah, we have seen this before.

Speaker 4 (01:06):
And is the fact that these Britage incidents are happening
so regularly now is of concern. I think it all
adds that sort of subdued atmosphere we've got around here
over Christmas and this incident happened early on Christmas morning,
and what it involves was too Telecom's cables, those linking
Sweden and Denmark were were affected and we saw that

(01:30):
power cable linking Finland.

Speaker 3 (01:31):
Estonia is broken down.

Speaker 4 (01:34):
The reason everyone's so concerned about this is the Baltic
is one of those areas where a lot of traffic,
a lot of seed traffic, and of course you've got
Russian vessels up there and you've got Chinese vessels.

Speaker 3 (01:45):
Now let's just look back.

Speaker 4 (01:46):
You know, seventeenth of November, Telecom cable is caught up there.
That was one linking Sweden to Lithuania. A day later
we had one linking the Finnish capital Helsinki to the
German port of Rostov was also cut.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
So it's seeing this happen all the time.

Speaker 4 (02:01):
And what the suspicion is that not just Russian vessels
you're dragging their anchor over these vital infrastructure cables, but
also of course in Chinese vessels. That was alleged that
was a Chinese vessel that caused those two incidents back
in November, which no one's ever got to the bottom

(02:22):
of what happened there. The vessel that was suspective carrying
it out was held in Danish waters for some time
during an investigation, but no one's got.

Speaker 3 (02:30):
Any any closer to it. But it is.

Speaker 4 (02:33):
Concerning tim because, as I said, this is an area
where Russia likes to think it's its backyard, and their
relations with the other Baltic states have now joined NATO
are certainly not at its best.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
And he's got a while until he's actually in power.
But Trump wants to get his hands on Greenland, does he?

Speaker 4 (02:52):
He does? Indeed, yes, in Europe has been if you like,
laying the groundwork for Trump's return to the White House
on the twentieth of January. But he seems to have
been getting a few things in early and one of
them is to renew his desire. Especially we could call
it to to have Greenland.

Speaker 3 (03:10):
In Greenland, he says, is an absolute necessity for the US.

Speaker 4 (03:15):
You or I looking at and think Greenland right up there,
and yes, it's got minerals, oil and natural gas.

Speaker 3 (03:20):
But why would you want that?

Speaker 4 (03:22):
Well, it is strategically important for the US military. They've
got a ballistic missile's early warning system up there. They
were a space facility, but it belongs to Denmark and
has belonged to Denmark for quite some time, and the
Prime Minister of Denmark as well as the Prime Minister
of Greenland have both said, hey, you know, Greenland's ours.

Speaker 3 (03:42):
It's not for sale, never will be.

Speaker 4 (03:44):
So I think what everyone's worried or scratching my head
about now, tim is isn't this Trump talking about policy
because he said before, back in twenty nineteen that America
should have a Greenland as its own? Or is it
just a flourish Is he just saying all these things
because he can and he's not yet taken office, and
it's going to keep us all on our toes.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
They always unpredictable or okay, no responsibility. I think that's
a smotto. Now, no Christmas respite from Ukraine with that
missile attach more than one hundred and eighty missiles on
Christmas Day.

Speaker 4 (04:17):
Yeah, this is really again reminding everyone that on Europe's
eastern fourt side, the war is still going on.

Speaker 3 (04:27):
He has seventy.

Speaker 4 (04:28):
Missiles, including cruise and mollistic missiles, and one hundred drones
were fired into Basically, it targeted Ukraine's energy infrastructure, which
meant that not just the people in Kiev who were
scurrying down into tech shelter and the metro. You had
places of course also in the east Khakiev, which ends

(04:49):
up with no water, no electricity, no heating, and at
the same time all these air a drills, aerid sirens
going off. It sort of shook everyone because this is
such you know, it's a freezing cold time there. People
are cold, they're getting into their third winter of this war, and.

Speaker 3 (05:06):
It just is vadimes ask.

Speaker 4 (05:08):
The Ukrainian president said, doing this on Christmas Day just
goes to show that he is still serious about this war,
that Putin does still want to carry on. And all
this talka of sea, his fire, of an end to
the war. He says, it's just fairy tales.

Speaker 2 (05:25):
Yeah, what a shame. By the way, you mentioned Notre
Dame at the Notre Dame at the start of your
a discussion and the Christmas service. Did you get along
to that or would have been a mate? What a
phenomenal event that must have been.

Speaker 3 (05:36):
It was amazing.

Speaker 4 (05:39):
I'm just blown away by Notre Dame because it is
so light inside, everything so clean, and it's almost as
though that's how the original architects wanted you to see
Notre Dame. You know, you see other cathedrals around France
that like that that haven't had the foot traffic, haven't
had so many centuries of wear and tear. And so

(05:59):
you go in there and it is absolutely stunning, lucky
to go in because.

Speaker 3 (06:04):
Of the big security in all churches.

Speaker 4 (06:07):
In France were under a security overnight. We've still got
troops on the streets going around. So it was lovely
and you're Notre Damas. Somehow it's touching and even if
you don't have a faith, it's something that's always been there.

Speaker 3 (06:20):
Everyone remembers, not to know.

Speaker 2 (06:24):
I was there with my wife of years ago, and
the organ was playing and they cranked out all the
stops and it was emotionally absolutely overpowering. And I'm not religious,
but it was really quite phenomenal, gorgeous. Anyway, Hey, Catherine,
enjoy your Christmas dinner. We'll let you go and Okay,
go bye bye. We'll be back in just a moment.

(06:44):
And the Brady joins US News Talk sed B. It's
nineteen minutes to seven.

Speaker 1 (06:51):
For more from News Talk, said B. Listen live on
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