The Washington Post: US intelligence was informed of the Ukrainian plan to bomb Nord Stream
A European spy agency has told the CIA it knew of a Ukrainian special operations team’s plan to blow up the Nord Stream gas pipeline three months before explosions damaged the network last year.
The Washington Post quoted US intelligence information suspected of being leaked earlier this year by a computer expert who holds a low-level job in the Air National Guard and has access to many highly classified materials.
The leaked documents indicated that an unnamed European intelligence agency informed the CIA in June 2022, four months after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, that Ukrainian military divers working directly under the commander-in-chief of the country’s armed forces were planning the attack.
Explosions rocked the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines designed to carry natural gas from Russia to Germany on September 26, knocking them out of service and depriving Russia of potential billions of dollars in revenue.
The seemingly disruptive operation triggered a regional emergency, cutting off essential energy supplies from Europe while oil prices skyrocketed as a result of the war.
Several countries, including Russia, the United States and Ukraine, were accused, but all of them denied any responsibility for the operation.
The Washington Post quoted unnamed officials as saying that the United States had informed its allies, including Germany, about the bombing plan upon receiving the information from the CIA.
It reported that the original European intelligence information on the plan indicated that the operation was not carried out by a dissident group, but rather was planned under the supervision of the Commander-in-Chief of the Army, Valery Zaluzhny, but without the knowledge of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Information gathered by German investigators backs up the Washington Post report, finding that a team of six people using fake passports boarded a sailboat from the German port of Rostock in September to carry out the operation.
They rented what appeared to be a sailboat front company.
According to German media reports last week, identifying data from emails used to charter the sailboat linked it to Ukraine and the head of the front company based in Kiev.
However, the Danish media recently reported that a Russian naval vessel specializing in submarine operations filmed at the site of the sabotage operation immediately before it occurred.
