Still unclear who carried out attack on Nord Stream pipelines in 2022, Nato chief says
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New intelligence reviewed by US officials indicated that a pro-Ukrainian group sabotaged the pipelines.
PHOTO: NYTIMES
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STOCKHOLM - It is still unclear who was responsible for the attack on the Nord Stream pipelines last year, as national investigations into the sabotage need to be concluded, Nato’s Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday.
“What we do know is that there was an attack against the Nord Stream pipelines, but we have not been able to determine who was behind it,” Mr Stoltenberg said before a meeting with European Union defence ministers in Stockholm.
“There are ongoing national investigations, and I think it’s right to wait until those are finalised before we say anything more about who was behind it.”
The New York Times reported on Tuesday that new intelligence reviewed by US officials
The report does not point to any official Ukrainian involvement.
But it comes at a time when Kyiv is urging its Western allies to ramp up supplies of high-end weapons to drive back Russian forces as the war enters its second year.
Investigations are ongoing as to what caused the Nord Stream pipelines, supplying Russian energy to Europe, to rupture and spew bubbles of natural gas into the Baltic Sea last September.
Western countries believe the explosions were deliberate but have not concluded who was behind them.
Russia, which has previously blamed the West, seized on the news on Wednesday to demand a transparent investigation in which it also wants to participate.
A separate report by Germany’s ARD broadcaster and Zeit newspaper on Tuesday said a group of five men and one woman, using forged passports, rented a yacht from a Poland-based company owned by Ukrainian citizens, but the nationality of the perpetrators was unclear.
“We have to make a clear distinction whether it was a Ukrainian group, whether it may have happened at Ukrainian orders, or a pro-Ukrainian group (acting) without knowledge of the government. But I am warning against jumping to conclusions,” German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said on the sidelines of the summit.
Mr Pistorius said earlier the likelihood was “equally high” that it could have been a “false flag operation staged to blame Ukraine”.
Germany meanwhile confirmed its investigators had raided a ship in January that may have been used to transport the explosives used to blow up the pipelines.
But a statement by the federal prosecutor said there was no reliable information yet on motives or perpetrators, including on whether the attack was state-sponsored. REUTERS
