As I understand it, the problem is not so much that they have been damaged, but rather that they have been damaged inside the combat zone and so repair craft are not likely to enter the area, thus the damage will remain.
That whole region is full on conflict. Be prepared for more Internet links to be severed. Always better to double on Pacific, Atlantic plus Indian Ocean routes.
Edit: answering myself here, but https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39605925 says that this actually happened a week ago but the media reports are just very delayed. Basically it is actually unrelated.
