WSJ: Ukraine behind Nord Stream pipeline bombings despite Zelensky blocking plan

A group of senior Ukrainian officials were responsible for planning the destruction of the Nord Stream gas pipelines in September 2022, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

The operation, which involved a small rented yacht and a crew of six, cost around $300,000 (€272,460), the WSJ said, adding that a team of military and civilian divers had used powerful yet relatively simple explosive devices to damage the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea. 

WSJ sources indicated that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky initially approved the plan to attack the pipelines, but later ordered a halt to the operation following a request from the CIA. General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, then the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, decided to proceed with the mission anyway, the publication said.

The plan was reportedly conceived during a drunken gathering one night in May 2022, in which senior Ukrainian military officers and businessmen proposed sabotaging the pipelines to prevent Russia supplying energy to Europe as retaliation for the invasion of Ukraine. 

The attack forced Russian energy giant Gazprom to immediately suspend gas deliveries to Europe through both pipelines and caused a surge in energy prices, leaving Germany and other European nations scrambling to nationalise companies that handled Russian gas. 

On Wednesday, Germany’s Federal Public Prosecutor General issued a European arrest warrant for a Ukrainian diving instructor, named only as Vladimir Z, accusing him of using explosives to blow up the pipeline two years ago. 

Four senior Ukrainian officials who were involved in or had knowledge of the operation told the WSJ that the pipelines were a legitimate target in Ukraine’s defensive war against Russia.

Now Ukraine’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, Zaluzhnyi told the WSJ that he was unaware of any such operation and described any suggestion to the contrary as ‘mere provocation’. Zelensky has also categorically denied that Kyiv was responsible for the explosions, telling Germany’s Bild Newspaper, “Nothing of the sort has been done by Ukraine. I would never act that way.”