European officials are looking toward Russia after two submarine internet cables in the Baltic Sea were suddenly disrupted in an apparent sabotage operation, just weeks after the United States warned that Moscow was likely to target critical undersea infrastructure.

Russia dismissed as "absurd" on Wednesday any suggestion that it had been involved in damage caused at the weekend to two fibre-optic data telecommunication cables in the Baltic Sea. European governments accused Russia on Tuesday of escalating hybrid attacks on Ukraine's Western allies,