Ukraine denies involvement in Nord Stream pipeline attacks
10:59 AM EDT, August 15, 2024
According to Reuters, Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, denied reports on Thursday of Ukraine's involvement in the attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines.
"Such an act can only be carried out by someone who possesses significant technical and financial resources. And who had all of that at the time of the attacks on Nord Stream? Only Russia," Podolyak stated to Reuters.
The advisor also emphasized that Kyiv had nothing to do with these explosions. He added that Ukraine did not gain any strategic or tactical advantage from the attacks on the Russian pipeline.
On Wednesday, German media, including "Die Zeit," ARD, and "Sueddeutsche Zeitung," reported that the German Federal Prosecutor's Office had issued its first arrest warrant in the case of the attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines.
That same day, Polish prosecutors announced that Poland had received a European arrest warrant issued by Berlin in connection with the attack. Still, the suspect, Ukrainian Volodymyr Z., had already left Poland. His current whereabouts are unknown.
On Thursday, the "Wall Street Journal" reported that top Ukrainian officials were involved in the attack on Nord Stream.
On September 26, 2022, three out of four strands of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines were destroyed at a depth of about 260 feet on the floor of the Baltic Sea. For years, a large portion of Russian natural gas for Germany was delivered directly through Nord Stream 1. Many Eastern and Western European countries repeatedly criticized the project and warned against the geopolitical consequences of bypassing Eastern Europe in the transit of raw materials.
During the Russian aggression against Ukraine, gas supplies through Nord Stream 1 were suspended by Moscow even before the pipeline was destroyed. Meanwhile, the Nord Stream 2 pipeline was ultimately not launched due to the Russian invasion and the resulting political disputes.
Russia blamed the USA, the United Kingdom, and Ukraine for the explosions, which largely cut off Russian gas from the lucrative European market. These countries denied their involvement.
Germany, Denmark, and Sweden initiated investigations into the incident. During the investigation, the Swedes found traces of explosives on several items collected from the explosion site, confirming that the explosions were deliberate actions.
