The story says fishermen. I say Russians, Russians, Russians.
From The BBC, October 21:
Communications to Shetland have been severely disrupted after a subsea cable was damaged.
Police have declared a major incident after the south subsea cable between the islands and the mainland was cut.
The force said some landlines and mobiles were not usable and that officers were patrolling to try to reassure residents.
Repairs to another cable connecting Shetland and Faroe are ongoing after it was damaged last week.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said it was an emergency situation for the island.
The Scottish government's resilience committee had met and was working with partner agencies to ensure support was provided, she added.
She said the assumption was the damage was accidental, adding: "There is nothing to suggest otherwise, but work is continuing to assess exactly what the cause of the problem has been."
MP for Orkney and Shetlands Alastair Carmichael told the BBC he had raised the issue with the UK government, but understood it could be days before communications were restored.
He said the priority was fixing the issue but that resilience would also need to be looked at in future.
Homes and businesses are affected across the isles, which are 130 miles (210 km) from the Scottish mainland and have a population of about 23,000....
....MUCH MORE
Skulduggery: "'Human activity' behind Svalbard cable disruption" and from December 2021:
....Military speaking, Svalbard is of great strategical importance, located between the Barents-, Greenland-, and Norwegian Seas. The one controlling Svalbard is also likely to control the important gateway from the shallow Barents Sea to the deeper North Atlantic.For Russia’s Northern Fleet, the so-called Bear Island Gap between mainland Norway and the archipelago’s southernmost island is key to conducting sea denial operations in and over the maritime areas further south, potentially threatening NATO’s transatlantic sea lines of communication.....
