According to Mykhailo Podoliak, adviser to the head of the President's Office, Ukraine has no involvement in the organization of blowing up Russian gas pipelines "North Stream".
Points of attention
- Mykhailo Podoliak, adviser to the President's Office, emphasizes Ukraine's lack of resources to undertake sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines.
- The Wall Street Journal's claims of Ukrainian involvement in the Nord Stream detonation are refuted by high-ranking officials and intelligence, who deny any participation in the sabotage operation.
- The alleged plan to blow up the Russian gas pipelines 'North Stream' is dismissed as a fabrication, with accusations based on fictional scenarios rather than factual evidence.
- Reports of the operation costing Ukraine $300,000 and involving a crew on a rented yacht are debunked, as Ukrainian officials deny any knowledge or approval of such activities.
- The involvement of Ukrainian individuals in the Nord Stream sabotage is disputed, with denials from General Zaluzhny and high-ranking SBU officials, who claim no authorization for such actions by the Ukrainian government.
Why Ukraine could not detonate the "Nordic Streams"
Podolyak notes that Ukraine simply does not have the necessary resources to carry out sabotage of such a scale as the blowing up of the Nord Stream gas pipelines.
Such an act can be carried out only with the presence of large technical and financial resources... and who possessed all this at the time of the explosion? Only Russia, - explains the OP representative.
According to Podoliak, Ukraine has nothing to do with the explosions at the Nord Stream gas pipeline.
At the same time, he added that Ukraine would not receive any strategic or tactical advantage from this.
Why do Western media spread information about Ukraine's involvement in undermining Nord Stream?
The Wall Street Journal published an article in which it is claimed that the idea to blow up the Russian gas pipelines "North Stream" allegedly came to Ukrainian high-ranking officials and influential businessmen during a party in a bar.
The material states that the plan was allegedly decided to be implemented in a cheap and simple way.
Journalists of the publication claim that the operation allegedly cost Ukraine 300,000 dollars.
In particular, a group of performers rented a yacht through a fake Polish travel agency.
A crew of six people was on board the yacht.
I always laugh when I read media speculation about some massive operation involving secret services, submarines, drones and satellites. All this was the result of a night of heavy drinking and the iron determination of a handful of people who had the courage to risk their lives for their country, - the journalists of the publication quoted the statement of one of the performers.
The authors of the publication claim that the agreement between businessmen and officials was concluded in May 2022.
As part of this agreement, Ukrainian businessmen were supposed to finance and help with the implementation of sabotage.
The curator of the mission was an active general with experience in conducting special operations.
He was directly subordinated to Zaluzhny. One of the participants called the mission a "public-private partnership".
The general in command of the operation enlisted several of Ukraine's top special operations officers, who have experience in organizing high-risk covert missions against Russia, to coordinate the attack.
One of them was SBU colonel Roman Chervinskyi. He declined to comment on the Nord Stream case, saying he was not authorized to speak about it.
Chervinsky and the sabotage team first studied an older, more detailed plan to blow up the pipeline, developed by Ukrainian intelligence and Western experts in 2014.
However, this plan was allegedly rejected due to the high cost and difficulty of its implementation.
Planners settled on using a small sailing boat and a crew of six - a mix of experienced soldiers and civilians with seafaring experience.
In September 2022, the conspirators rented a pleasure yacht called "Andromeda". One crew member was an experienced captain and four were experienced deep-sea divers.
The crew consisted of civilians, one of whom was a woman in her 30s who was privately trained in diving.
She was chosen for her skills and to give more believability to the crew masquerading as friends on vacation.
The captain took a short leave from his unit, which was fighting on the front in the south-east of Ukraine, his commander did not know about the operation.
Armed only with diving equipment, satellite navigation, a portable sonar and open maps of the seabed showing the location of the pipelines, the team set out.
Four divers worked in pairs.
Working in pitch black, icy water, they worked with high explosive HMX connected to timer detonators.
A small amount of light explosive would be enough to burst the high pressure pipes.
Bad weather forced the crew to make an unscheduled stop in the Swedish port of Sandhamn.
One diver accidentally dropped an explosive device on the bottom of the sea. The crew briefly debated whether to abort the operation due to bad weather, but the storm soon abated.
Eyewitnesses on other yachts moored in Sandhamn noted that "Andromeda" was the only boat on the mast of which a small Ukrainian flag was raised.
The attack disabled three out of four pipelines, and energy prices in Europe jumped sharply.
The authors of the material also note that there were no agreements on paper.
In addition, the publication claims that 4 high-ranking officials in the field of defense and security of Ukraine allegedly called the pipelines a legitimate target in the criminal war unleashed by Russia.
It is noted that currently the German prosecutor's office has issued the first warrant for the arrest of a Ukrainian professional diving instructor for his alleged involvement in this case and is conducting an investigation into the involvement in the bombing of the former head of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny and his assistants.
It is noted that representatives of the Dutch intelligence learned about the sabotage plan and allegedly warned the CIA.
The CIA warned Zelenskyi's office about the need to stop the operation.
The Ukrainian president ordered Zaluzhny to cancel all plans, but the general ignored the order and his team changed the original plan.
After the explosions, Zelenskyi got angry and summoned Zaluzhnyi to a meeting, but the general brushed off his criticism.
Zaluzhny told Zelenskyi that the sabotage group remained out of touch after dispatch and could not be recalled, as any contact with them could compromise the operation.
General Zaluzhny, currently Ukraine's ambassador to the United Kingdom, told the publication that he knew nothing of any such operation, and that any suggestion to the contrary was a "simple provocation."
A high-ranking SBU official also denied his government's involvement in the sabotage and stated that Zelensky, in particular, "did not approve the implementation of any such actions on the territory of third countries and did not issue the corresponding orders."
