Russian attacks on underwater pipelines and cables threaten the security of a billion people across Europe and America, NATO commander warns [Video]

06:17 EDT 16 Apr 2024 , updated 07:52 EDT 16 Apr 2024

A top NATO commander has warned Europe and North America are vulnerable to ‘undersea hybrid warfare’, with Russia having developed the capability to sever cables responsible for maintaining online communications. 

Vice Admiral Didier Maleterre, the deputy commander of the security alliance’s Allied Maritime Command (MARCOM) and former submariner, said: ‘More than 90 per cent of [the] Internet is under the sea. All our links between the US, Canada and Europe are transmitting under the sea, so there are a lot of vulnerabilities.

‘We know the Russians have developed a lot of hybrid warfare under the sea to disrupt the European economy, through cables, internet cables, pipelines… That’s a very important concern because it’s a security issue for nearly 1 billion NATO-nation civilians,’ he told The Guardian. 

V. Adm. Maleterre’s stark warning comes just weeks after British think-tank Policy Exchange published a reporturging government ministers to develop a strategy …