The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) published an investigation into how Ukraine was planning to sabotage Nord Stream. In September 2022, as a result of a series of explosions in the waters of Sweden and Denmark, the pipeline carrying Russian natural gas under the Baltic Sea to Germany was damaged, releasing a huge amount of methane into the atmosphere.
The idea to carry out explosions in the North Stream gas pipelines was born in May 2022 among several high-ranking Ukrainian military officers and businessmen. The businessmen agreed to finance the operation, the BBC reported. According to those involved, the cost of the operation was about $300 thousand.
The operation was coordinated by a general with experience in special operations (name withheld). At that time, he was subordinate to Valerii Zaluzhnyi, then Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy initially approved the plan (the publication emphasizes that all agreements were reached verbally). However, when the military intelligence of the Netherlands found out about the plan to blow up the gas pipeline, it passed this information to the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
The CIA asked Zelenskyy to cancel the operation, and the President of Ukraine gave the corresponding order to Zaluzhnyi. However, he ignored that order and the original plan of action was changed.
In a comment given to WSJ, Zaluzhnyi said that he did not know anything about the operation. At the same time, the newspaper notes that when Zaluzhnyi was removed from the position of the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces at the beginning of this year, he was appointed Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK, which gave him immunity from criminal prosecution.
The yacht Andromeda was used to carry out the operation of blowing up the gas pipeline. There were six people on the yacht, among them a 30-year-old woman, who had to create the illusion that the group was a group of friends going on a pleasant cruise.
Divers worked in pairs at the site of the explosion. They used an explosive that was connected to timer-controlled detonators.
A few days after the gas pipeline explosions, the CIA passed the message of the military intelligence of the Netherlands to the German secret service. It provided details of the attack, including the type of boat used and the possible route taken by its crew.
In addition, the saboteurs forgot to wash the Andromeda, which enabled German investigators to find traces of explosives, fingerprints, and DNA samples of the crew members. In November 2022, German investigators assumed that Ukrainians were behind the explosion, The Wall Street Journal concludes.
