What happened to Nord Stream? A final hypothesis is still lacking. But information is slowly emerging that may shed light on the sabotage of the gas pipeline connecting Russia to Germany. As The Washington Post reported on Tuesday, The United States learned about his plan to sabotage Ukraine.
Three months before the attack on the pipeline, the Biden administration learned from an ally that the Ukrainian military had planned a covert attack on the submarine network, using a small group of divers who spoke directly to the commander-in-chief. forces the Ukrainian army.
Details of the plan, not previously known, were gathered by European intelligence and shared with the CIA in June 2022. According to the US newspaper, this is the most concrete evidence to date linking the Ukrainian government to a possible attack in the Baltic Sea, which US and European leaders have described as a dangerous act of sabotage against energy infrastructure.
The report by European intelligence services was shared on the Discord chat platform, allegedly by Jack Teixeira of the Air National Guard. The Washington Post obtained a copy from one of Teixeira’s friends.
The first element that shook the board was a month ago from the American journalist Seymour H
The intelligence report was based on information received from a person in Ukraine. The information from the source could not be immediately confirmed, but the CIA shared the report with Germany and other European countries last June, according to multiple officials involved in the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence operations and diplomatic discussions. The American newspaper explains.
The details include the number of operatives and methods of attack and show that for nearly a year, Western allies had reason to suspect Kiev of sabotage. That suspicion has intensified in recent months when German security forces investigators uncovered evidence of an attack with striking similarities to one European intelligence said Ukraine had planned.
Officials from several countries have confirmed that the summary posted on Discord accurately reflects what the European agency provided to the CIA. The Post agreed to the name of the European country, as well as some aspects of the alleged plan, at the request of government officials who said disclosure would jeopardize sources and operations.
Ukrainian officials, who previously denied the country was involved in the Nord Stream attack, did not respond to The Washington Post, which explained that the White House declined to respond to the report and alleged Ukrainian military collusion. Did US officials try to stop the mission? The CIA also declined to comment.
Last September’s attack on the Nord Stream gas pipeline – which connects Germany and Russia – has many questions and only one certainty: it was not an accident. The incident has been the subject of ongoing speculation and cross-accusations for months. Journalists and governments of different countries started a parallel investigation to find out what happened. In the last hours, certain details have become known, which, although they do not lead to a final conclusion, but give important hints.
What was the impact of the attack?
Although the German government said in September that the attack could render the infrastructure permanently unusable, the sabotage of the gas pipelines had no effect on the supply of energy to Europe.
Nord Stream 2, due for completion in September 2021, never went live because the German government suspended its certification when Putin recognized the independence of the Donbass territories controlled by pro-Russian forces just two days before the invasion.
Nord Stream 1, in turn, stopped working on September 2, when Russia has stopped supplying For supposed technical reasons. In June, it already reduced the flow to 40%, and in July to 20%, pointing to Western sanctions as the reason for technical errors in the infrastructure. However, both pipelines were indeed loaded with gas, which caused the leak.
Nord Stream is a set of two gas pipelines directly connecting the Russian cities of Vyborg and Ust-Luga to Germany. With a length of 1,224 kilometers, they together have the capacity to transport 110,000 million cubic meters of gas per year (the entire The EU consumes around 397,000 million cubic meters of gas).
Source: El Diario
