STOCKHOLM - At least 50m of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline has been destroyed or buried under the seafloor, following an explosion assumed to be from sabotage, underwater images published on Tuesday showed.
In videos published by newspaper Expressen, a massive tear and twisted metal can be seen on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline 80m down.
According to the newspaper, the videos that were filmed on Monday showed that over 50m of the pipeline is either missing or buried under the seabed, and long tears can be observed on the seabed leading up to the burst pipe.
“It is only an extreme force that can bend metal that thick in the way we are seeing,” Mr Trond Larsen, a drone operator with the Norwegian company Blueye Robotics, told Expressen.
Mr Larsen, who piloted the submersible drone which captured the video, said “a very large impact on the seabed around the pipe” could also be seen.
The two Nord Stream pipelines were damaged by explosions under the Baltic Sea at the end of September, causing four leaks.
While the leaks were in international waters, two of them were in the Danish exclusive economic zone and two of them in the Swedish side.
Swedish authorities announced on Oct 6 that they had conducted an underwater inspection of the site and collected “pieces of evidence” and that the inspection backed up suspicions of probable sabotage.
The Kremlin said on Tuesday that the investigations appeared to have been set up with the intention of falsely blaming Russia.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said “elementary logic” showed the pipeline damage was a blow to Russia’s interests. He said the investigation was being conducted “secretively” and without Moscow’s involvement.
“The main thing is that the way it looks in public, according to statements we are hearing from Germany, from France, and from Denmark: this investigation was set up inherently to put the blame on Russia,” Mr Peskov said.
The pipelines, which connect Russia to Germany, have been at the centre of geopolitical tensions as Russia cut gas supplies to Europe in suspected retaliation against Western sanctions over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Although the pipelines were not in operation, they contained gas before falling victim to the apparent sabotage. AFP
