It has been revealed that Western allies were warned about a Ukrainian plot months before three explosions caused leaks in the Nord Stream gas pipelines. Will we ever know who did it?
It has been revealed that Western allies were warned about a Ukrainian plot months before three explosions caused leaks in the Nord Stream gas pipelines.
Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 are pipelines which take natural gas from Russia, under the Baltic sea and into Germany to provide energy to Western Europe.
And in September last year both were damaged by three explosions.
Aquatic monitoring equipment detected a blast equivalent to that of a car bomb.
At the time it wasn’t clear who was responsible, but both Russia and the West were quick to point fingers…
President Joe Biden: The Nord Stream pipeline leaks are a “deliberate act of sabotage”.
So which side had the most to gain?
The explosions happened more than 6 months after Russia began its full scale invasion of Ukraine.
Some countries in western Europe, like Germany, were over reliant on the Russian gas that came through the pipeline. Winter was approaching and they were extremely concerned about energy supplies.
But Russia blamed America for the attack after President Biden used this language to make a point about Russian gas being exported to Europe…
President Joe Biden: “If Russia invades we will put an end to Nord Stream 2”.
But really neither Russia nor America had a clear motive.
For months there was no concrete evidence. That is, until now.
The Washington Post newspaper got hold of American intelligence documents. They were part of the huge leak on the internet chat group, Discord, earlier this year.
The intel showed that in June last year the Dutch intelligence agency received information about an “imminent attack” on Nord Stream from an unnamed source in Ukraine.
The source said the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces was planning the attack using a team of 6 special ops divers travelling on a sailing boat.
The report claimed that the Dutch authorities told the US government – months in advance of the blasts. The leak also shows that the American government then warned the Ukrainian military not to go ahead with the plan.
The official investigations are ongoing, but if the report is confirmed it will show that Western countries had strong reasons to suspect Ukrainian involvement all along – but chose to stay silent.
This episode was written by Rebecca Moore and mixed by Imy Harper.