Ukraine has denied its involvement in the September attack on the Nord Stream gas pipeline, which was built to deliver Russian natural gas to Germany, the BBC writes.
The denial follows a report in the New York Times that said a pro-Ukraine group may be responsible. Kremlin representative Dmitry Peskov rejected this news and stated that it was a deliberate attempt to distort information.
Russian gas supplies had already been suspended before the explosion. Russia shut down Nord Stream 1 in August 2022, while Nord Stream 2 has never been used.
The exact cause of the explosion is unknown. Moscow blamed the West for the Nord Stream attack. NATO and Western leaders have not directly accused Russia of causing the explosions, although the
European Union has previously indicated that Russia is using the gas pipelines as a weapon against the West.
On Tuesday, the 7th of March, the New York Times reported that new intelligence indicates that Nord Stream was sabotaged by a pro-Ukraine group. However, the report notes that there is no evidence that the president of Ukraine or top officials of his government and army were involved in the operation. Mykhailo Podolyak, the adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, stated that the Ukrainian government was definitely not involved in the sabotage.
On the 7th of March, the German newspaper Die Zeit published a report saying that the German authorities had succeeded in advancing the investigation. It is reported that a yacht rented from a Polish company owned by two Ukrainian citizens was used to plant the explosives. At the same time, Die Zeit reported that
investigators have found no evidence of the identity of those who ordered the sabotage, and there is still the possibility that it was a ruse to incriminate Ukraine.
Authorities in Germany, Sweden, and Denmark are investigating the sabotage that damaged the gas pipelines. Moscow is not satisfied with the progress of the investigation, and Peskov said that the whole thing looks like a large-scale crime.
Russia has supplied Europe with natural gas in large quantities for several decades. After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, most European Union countries significantly reduced their reliance on the aggressor’s energy resources.
Read also: Ukrainians continue to defend Bakhmut against Russian attacks