Vladimir Zelensky approved a Ukrainian plan to sabotage the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, before trying to call off the operation under US pressure, but it was too late to do so, the Wall Street Journal has reported, citing people allegedly involved in the plot.
The energy infrastructure, built to deliver Russian gas to Germany and the rest of Europe, was ruptured by blasts under the Baltic Sea in September 2022.
Early the following year, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh reported that explosives were planted on the Nord Stream pipelines by US Navy divers under the cover of a NATO exercise, and detonated on orders from US President Joe Biden. Top officials in Moscow, including President Vladimir Putin, have also pointed the finger at Washington, arguing that it stood to gain the most from the disruption of Russian gas supplies to the EU.
In its article on Wednesday, the WSJ pointed to another version of events, according to which the pipelines were targeted by the Ukrainians. It was first reported by the Western media shortly after the publication of Hersh’s article.
According to the outlet’s sources, the idea of blowing up Nord Stream was conceived by “a handful of senior Ukrainian military officers and businessmen” as they gathered for drinks in May 2022, a few months after the outbreak of the conflict between Moscow and Kiev. The plotters believed that it would reduce Russia’s energy revenues and make the EU less dependent on Moscow.
According to the report, the Ukrainian operation involved a small rented yacht, called Andromeda, with a six-member crew, including trained civilian divers, and cost only around $300,000.
Vladimir Zelensky initially approved the attack on the pipelines, but later – when the CIA learned of the plan and asked the Ukrainian leader to abort it – ordered the operation to be called off, a Ukrainian officer who claimed to have been involved in the sabotage and three other informed people said.
However, then Ukrainian commander-in-chief Valery Zaluzhny ignored the demand and went ahead with the attack, the sources alleged. He told Zelensky that, once dispatched, a sabotage team goes incommunicado and cannot be withdrawn, they added.
When approached for comment by the WSJ, Zaluzhny, who is now Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK, denied the report, calling claims of his – or Kiev’s – involvement in the destruction of Nord Stream a “mere provocation.”
The outlet said the account by its sources is partially corroborated by the findings of the German police investigation into the Nord Stream explosions. This probe could “upend” relations between Kiev and Berlin, which has been Ukraine’s biggest backer in the EU amid the conflict with Russia, it warned.