Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said Wednesday that Ukraine was not involved in the sabotage of the two Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea last September. This statement follows information published by the New York Times, which attributed the sabotage to a “pro-Ukrainian group”. Although U.S. intelligence has collected data suggesting that the perpetrators of the sabotage were “opponents of Russian President Vladimir Putin,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius called for no hasty conclusions.
A mysterious sabotage
The sabotage of the gas pipelines connecting Russia and Germany took place on September 26, 2022. Four huge gas leaks, preceded by underwater explosions, were detected in international waters. Although criminal investigations have been carried out in the bordering countries (Germany, Sweden and Denmark), the responsibility for the underwater attack still remains a mystery. The Nord Stream pipelines have long been hated by Washington because of Europe’s, and especially Germany’s, energy dependence on Russia. Tensions were exacerbated after the invasion of Ukraine. Both pipelines were out of service at the time of the sabotage, but contained large quantities of methane gas.
Conspiracy theories
The New York Times accusations were quickly denied by an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who called the claims “amusing conspiracy theories. Relations between Russia and Ukraine have long been strained by territorial disputes in Crimea and eastern Ukraine. Russia was subjected to economic sanctions by Western countries following the invasion of Ukraine.
This spectacular underwater attack remains shrouded in mystery and raises fears of new acts of sabotage in an already tense geopolitical context.
