Nord Stream Pipeline: Ukraine denies the involvement in sabotage

• A pro-Ukrainian group may have been behind last year’s operation against Russia’s gas exports to Europe.
• The operation was carried out by a group loyal to Ukraine.
• The pro-Ukrainian individuals were motivated to damage the pipelines.

Ukraine has denied involvement in sabotaging the Nord Stream pipelines following a media story stating new evidence indicating a “pro-Ukrainian group” may have been behind last year’s operation against Russia’s gas exports to Europe.

The firing of a senior Ukrainian official on Tuesday was in response to a New York Times report that claimed new intelligence examined by US authorities.

“Although I enjoy collecting amusing conspiracy theories about (the Ukrainian) government, I have to say: (Ukraine) has nothing to do with the Baltic Sea mishap and has no information about ‘pro-(Ukraine) sabotage groups,'” Mykhailo Podolyak, top adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, wrote on Twitter.

According to American sources, the operation was carried out by a group loyal to Ukraine but acting independently of the government in Kyiv.

Who was responsible for the brazen sabotage last September that destroyed two pipelines bringing Russian gas into the European Union and targeted a critical source of revenue for Moscow has remained unknown. Both channels were blocked at the time of the incident, which came months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Yet to identify

According to a source familiar with US intelligence, the assessment was not made with high confidence and is not the overwhelming view of the intelligence community. The US has yet to identify a perpetrator for the act.

Others in the US intelligence community believe that pro-Ukrainian individuals were motivated to damage the pipelines because Moscow was weaponizing them against Ukraine and Europe.

According to the source, the intelligence community has no evidence that Ukrainian elites, including Zelenskyy, were aware of or involved in the pipeline sabotage.

The episode, in which underwater explosions happened before the pipes ruptured in numerous locations, is still a major source of disagreement between Russia and the West.

The pipelines that connect Russia and Germany via the Baltic Sea to transport Russian gas to the European Union were controversial long before the Kremlin declared war on Ukraine, owing to concerns over Europe’s reliance on Russian energy.

Their destruction added another wrinkle to the energy confrontation that arose following the invasion as Europe sought to wean itself off Russian fuel.

Several investigations are being conducted by European authorities.

An act of sabotage

After discovering evidence of explosives at the sites, Swedish prosecutors concluded the pipeline bursts were an act of sabotage in November, but their preliminary inquiry has yet to establish any charges.

Addressing reporters on Tuesday, US National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby referred queries to investigating European authorities and said he was “not going to get ahead of that investigative work.”

“Several of our European partners – in fact, three of them in Germany, Sweden and Denmark – have already opened investigations into what happened with the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, and those investigations are not closed. They’re still hard at work on that,” Kirby said.

Sightings of Russian vessels operating in the area where the leaks occurred raised concerns about Russia’s potential involvement, which at the time drew attention from both European and US officials as the only actor in the region believed to have both the capability and motivation to intentionally damage the pipelines.

Moscow has publicly denied attacking the pipelines and has blamed the explosions on the West. A spokeswoman for Russia termed the claims “predictably foolish and ludicrous” in September.

Earlier this month, during a G20 conference in New Delhi, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov urged on the need for a “fair and prompt investigation” into the blasts.

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