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,

NATO launched a new Baltic Sea mission that will add military capabilities into the strategic waterway as concerns over suspected Russian sabotage and aggression in the area ratchet up.

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