Crew on board an oil tanker accused of sabotaging undersea power and communications cables in the Baltic Sea were poised to cut other cables and pipelines when Finnish authorities boarded the vessel last month,

The Baltic Sea operation in the region bordering Russia comes as European fears of sabotage mount after a string of disruptions to underwater cables.

Estonian naval ships are taking part in stepped-up patrols in the Baltic Sea by NATO countries after undersea power and communications cables have been damaged in recent months.

NATO countries will deploy frigates, patrol aircraft and naval drones in the Baltic Sea to help protect critical infrastructure and reserve the right to take action against ships suspected of posing a security threat,

NATO announced on Tuesday that it will beef up its patrol of the Baltic Sea in the light of past infrastructure damage to cables on the sea floor.

NATO is launching a new mission to protect undersea cables in the Baltic Sea region after a string of incidents that have heightened concerns about possible Russian activities, the alliance’s leader said.

NATO announced a new mission on Tuesday to better protect critical underwater infrastructure in the Baltic Sea with significantly more ships, aircraft and drones, as concerns about Russian aggression in the region grow.

Amid a series of incidents that have damaged critical cables in the Baltic Sea, intelligence services in the U.S. and Europe are increasingly convinced that accidents led to the incidents, according to a new report by the Washington Post on Jan.