On Wednesday, the NATO Naval Command announced that two ships would be deployed to the Gulf of Finland as part of the new Baltic Sentry mission, which was established at Tuesday's meeting of Alliance representatives in Helsinki.

NATO is launching a new mission to protect undersea cables in the Baltic Sea region after a string of incidents that have heightened concerns about possible Russian activities, the alliance’s leader said.

Baltic Sea NATO member countries plan to discuss security in the region at a summit in Helsinki on Tuesday that comes in the wake of a number of recent acts of suspected sabotage at sea. The main purpose of the summit is to find ways to better protect critical infrastructure in the Baltic Sea and to counter the threat posed by the so-called Russian shadow fleet.