Baltic states unplug from Russia and join EU power grid

Pointing to a recent spate of suspected sabotage incidents involving electricity cables and pipelines in the Baltic Sea, she said “there is a pattern, and we cannot ignore it.”

In the past 18 months, at least 11 cables running under the Baltic Sea have been damaged. In a recent case, a ship from Russia’s “shadow fleet” of oil tankers was accused of damaging Estonia’s main power link in the Gulf of Finland. The Kremlin declined to comment.

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda called for sanctions on Russia’s shadow fleet, saying recent incidents were of “great concern”.

Nato has not directly accused Russia but responded by launching a new patrol mission of the region named Baltic Sentry.

In total, around 1.6bn euros (£1.33bn) was invested in the project to transfer the three nations onto the EU’s grid, with the funds largely provided by the EU.

The transition took place over two days, with three nations disconnecting from the Russian grid on Saturday morning, operating as an “energy island” for around 24 hours, and plugging into the EU grid on Sunday.

Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko hailed it as a “significant event for the whole of Europe”.