Through Captain Arunas’ binoculars, visibility is close to zero: "One kilometer, no more." The thick fog hanging over the Baltic Sea complicates the patrol for the 50 sailors aboard the Jotvingis. Their mission aboard the Lithuanian Navy command vessel: preventing hybrid threats as part of NATO's Baltic Sentinel operation.

Russia's barbaric war in Ukraine is draining resources, but Leningrad Military District will in the longer run significantly expand its troops near the border with Finland and Norway.

Russia is believed to be behind dozens of hybrid attacks, like arson or sabotage, on NATO soil since the Ukraine war started.

An emerging consensus among U.S. and European security services holds that accidents were the cause of damage to Baltic seabed energy and communications lines.

January in Russia conjures up images of Muscovites crunching through the snow in bulky coats -- not bunches of delicate snowdrops blooming in grassy areas around still-standing Christmas trees.

Incidents damaging Europe’s undersea networks have become more frequent since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, raising suspicions they are the result of sabotage.

"Ukraine is fighting to defend not only its independence and peaceful future, but also the jointly agreed security order based on international law. As the previous Chairpersonships, Finland will keep support for Ukraine at the heart of the OSCE’s work," she noted.

Across Russia, the devout celebrate Epiphany on January 19 by immersing themselves in frigid water through holes cut through the ice of lakes and rivers, imitating the baptism of Jesus Christ in the River Jordan.

Russia has recently taken a page out of Trump's book and is proposing to rename the Gulf of Finland the Gulf of St. Petersburg.

In 2023, Mads Petersen, owner of Greenland-based startup Arctic Unmanned, sat in a car to keep warm while he tested a small drone at minus 43 degrees Celsius (minus 45 degrees Fahrenheit). The cold soon drained the drone's power.

London (CNN) — On Sunday, an undersea cable ferrying data between Sweden and Latvia was damaged, most likely as a result of an external force, Latvia said.

NATO is deploying eyes in the sky and on the Baltic Sea to protect cables and pipelines that stitch together the nine countries with shores on Baltic waters.