Media: NATO allies foiled a Russian attempt to sabotage undersea cables

NATO allies have uncovered Russian submarines in Arctic waters near the Svalbard archipelago conducting exercises involving a secret weapon designed to disable critical undersea cables.

As reported by Reuters, the covert operation was carried out by Russia's Main Directorate for Deep-Sea Research, which used underwater vehicles to simulate the deployment of this sophisticated technology.

The UK, Norway and the US carried out a joint operation to track and intercept the Russian vessels at sea, which were prevented from completing their exercise and eventually left the area.

In April, the UK and Norway said they had uncovered a covert Russian operation in Arctic waters. However, the discovery of the new weapon, the location of the operation and US involvement had not previously been reported.

Russia and Norway have a territorial dispute over the Svalbard archipelago, also known as Spitsbergen, partly because of its strategic location in the Arctic.

Undersea infrastructure in northern Norway has previously been the subject of suspicious incidents. In February 2026, Norway's domestic security service warned that Russia would step up its espionage activities in Norway this year, focusing on the Arctic part of the mainland and the Svalbard archipelago.