The inspection of the two Nord Stream gas pipelines deliberately damaged by underwater explosions off a Danish island in the Baltic Sea will not take place for one to two weeks, the Danish defense minister said Wednesday.
Because of the widespread boiling caused by the three gas leaks, “it can easily take a week or two before the area is quiet enough to just see what has happened,” Morten Bødskov told Danish media on the sidelines of a meeting with Nato’s secretary general in Brussels.
“It’s a very big explosion that happened, so it will be a while before we can get down there,” the minister stressed about the pipelines, which are located at a depth of about 80 meters.
Out of service because of the war in Ukraine, the gas pipelines, which connect Russia to Germany, nevertheless contained gas that leaked to the surface with bubbles ranging from 200 meters to one kilometer in diameter.
On Tuesday, the Danish government announced that Denmark considered that the leaks off the island of Bornholm had been caused by “deliberate acts” and “detonations”, without making any accusations about those responsible.
The European Union has promised the “strongest response” to this “sabotage”. The power of the leaks makes it impossible to stop them. According to Copenhagen, the leaks will continue until the gas in the pipelines is exhausted, which should take “at least a week”.
