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A top Ukrainian official denied claims that a “pro-Ukrainian group” was behind the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines last year, according to the New York Times, which claims that fresh intelligence has been provided to US officials.
The Times cautiously stated that there was no proof linking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the pipeline bombing, according to US authorities.
However, the attack aided Ukraine by severely undermining Russia’s ability to profit handsomely from the sale of natural gas to Western Europe.
At the same time, it increased the pressure that Ukraine’s important allies—particularly Germany—faced from high energy costs.
According to the Times story, the intelligence indicated that those responsible for the sabotage were “opponents of Russian President Vladimir V. Putin”.
The Baltic Sea incident has nothing to do with Ukraine, and the country has no knowledge of any “pro-Ukraine sabotage organizations,” according to a tweet from presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak on Tuesday.
The operation would have needed skilled divers and explosives experts, but US officials had no idea who precisely participated or who organized and paid for it.
They assumed that those involved—none of whom were Americans or Britons—were most likely citizens of Ukraine or Russia.
sailboat rented
German detectives thought the unnamed group consisted of five men and one woman with expertly forged passports, according to various accounts in German media.
According to the broadcasters ARD, SWR, and the weekly magazine Zeit, German authorities had identified the boat believed to have been used in the assault.
According to the German story, which only cited sources from various nations, the in question yacht was allegedly rented out by a company with its headquarters in Poland and belonged to two Ukrainians.
On September 6, 2022, the commando party is said to have departed from the port of Rostock in northern Germany before being localized the following day on the Danish island of Christianso in the Baltic.
Investigators were able to discover evidence of explosives on the table in the stateroom before the yacht was later given back to its owner uncleaned, according to the thorough report.
On September 26, seven months after Russian troops invaded Ukraine, the pipelines were destroyed by underwater explosives.
The absence of a concrete suspect meant that, according to the German media, international intelligence officials had not ruled out the chance of a “false flag” operation to attribute the attack to Ukraine.
“False to conjecture”
Investigators have begun looking into the event in Germany, Sweden, and Denmark.
The German government, according to a spokeswoman, “took notice” of the New York Times report and referred back to the ongoing investigation.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told reporters late Tuesday that there was a preliminary investigation going on in his country and that he had no plans to remark.
The comments were echoed by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who said it would be “wrong to speculate” before the investigations were finished.
Veteran US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh revealed that Norway helped with the plan to bomb the Nord Stream pipelines in a report from February.
The unnamed source that Hersh mentioned in his article was scorned by the White House as “complete fiction.”
