NATO allies foil Russian subsea cable sabotage drill near Svalbard

A joint UK–Norway–US operation tracked and confronted Russian GUGI submersibles simulating methods to damage undersea cables near Svalbard; no cables were cut. The episode heightens Western concern that Moscow may expand deniable infrastructure attacks, potentially probing NATO’s Article 5 thresholds. Undersea cables carry over 97% of global data and enable roughly $10 trillion in daily financial transactions.