Wed 08 March 2023:
German investigators uncovered an evidence that showed a pro-Ukrainian group sabotaged the Nord Stream pipelines last year, local media reported on Tuesday.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, denied the Ukrainian government had any involvement in the pipeline attacks. “Although I enjoy collecting amusing conspiracy theories about the Ukrainian government, I have to say: Ukraine has nothing to do with the Baltic Sea mishap and has no information about ‘pro-Ukraine sabotage groups,'” Podolyak wrote in a tweet.
Three of the four pipes making up the Nord Stream 1 and 2 undersea gas pipelines from Russia to Germany were destroyed by explosions last September. Germany, Sweden and Denmark launched investigations into an incident that was quickly established to be a case of “sabotage.”
The German media reports — which come on top of a New York Times report Tuesday which said that “intelligence suggests that a pro-Ukrainian group” sabotaged the pipelines — stress that there’s no proof that Ukrainian authorities ordered the attack or were involved in it.
According to the investigation by German public prosecutors, the group, made up of five men and one woman, traveled to the northern city of Rostock in September 2022, rented a yacht using fake passports, and sabotaged the Nord Stream pipelines, public broadcaster ARD reported.
The yacht used in the operation was rented by a company based in Poland, which was apparently owned by two Ukrainians, according to the investigators.
The group believed to have consisted of two divers, two assistants, one captain, and a medic.
The suspects used professionally forged passports, and German authorities could not yet verify their real identities and nationalities.
The investigators found traces of explosives in the cabin of the yacht during forensic examinations.
Russian foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova dismissed the reports of Ukrainian involvement in the Nord Stream bombings, saying in a post on the Telegram social media site that they were aimed at distracting attention from earlier, unsubstantiated, reports that the U.S. destroyed the pipelines.
The Nord Stream pipelines were sabotaged last September, and explosions caused extensive damage to the pipelines connecting Russia and Germany via the Baltic Sea.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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