Multiple countries are investigating and the authorities in Europe say they have not ruled out sabotage. But U.S. intelligence officials have assessed that the cables were not cut deliberately.

The crew of the Chinese bulk carrier Yi Peng is suspected of cutting communication cables in the Baltic Sea. It has been under the protection of European warships in international waters for a week, The Wall Street Journal informs.

Sweden is asking a Chinese vessel to return to Swedish waters to help facilitate an investigation into recent breaches of undersea fibre-optic cables in the Baltic Sea, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said on Tuesday,

NATO warships have surrounded Yi Peng 3, a Chinese bulk carrier at the center of an international probe into suspected sabotage.

International investigators reportedly believe the crew aboard Yi Peng 3, a bulk carrier full of Russian fertilizer, dragged its anchor for more than 100 miles across the Baltic seabed, damaging the cables that run across it.

Sweden has demanded that the Chinese vessel connected to an investigation of two Internet cables in the Baltic Sea being damaged earlier this month return to its waters as part of the probe.

Sweden’s prime minister has urged a Chinese ship linked to the cutting of two cables to move into Swedish waters, as the country steps up its investigation of the potential incident of sabotage in the Baltic Sea.

Sweden is asking that a Chinese vessel moves into Swedish waters to help facilitate the Nordic country's investigation into recent breaches of undersea fibre-optic cables in the Baltic Sea, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said on Tuesday.