German weekly Der Spiegel has claimed that it knows the identities of the divers responsible for the sabotage of the Nord Stream undersea gas pipelines. The outlet’s investigation supports Western allegations that the September 2022 attack was funded by private Ukrainian money and given the green light by General Valery Zaluzhny, who was fired by Vladimir Zelensky and is now Kiev’s ambassador to the UK.
The new report came on the eve of the second anniversary of the high-profile attack. While German investigators haven’t named a culprit, Der Spiegel and other news outlets have reported that a group of Ukrainian divers, who sailed on the yacht Andromeda, were responsible for the bombing.
The outlets allege that Ukrainian intelligence officer Roman Chervinsky, who is being investigated in his home country in an unrelated case, was the alleged mastermind of the plot. Zaluzhny, who was serving as the commander in chief of the Ukrainian armed forces at the time, supposedly authorized the operation. Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky was either unaware of the plot or could not stop it in time, according to accounts by different outlets.
Zelensky fired Zaluzhny in February after the two publicly clashed over military strategy; the retired general has denied responsibility for the Nord Stream attack.
While Der Spiegel has added some details to the narrative and claimed to know the identities of those directly involved, it didn’t reveal their names.
The outlet claims most of the divers were civilians with experience working at great depths, and that the team was led by a commando. It added that those behind the operation had contemplated it years before the armed conflict between Ukraine and Russia erupted in February 2022.
The German press had previously reported that investigators seek the arrest of a Ukrainian professional diver named Vladimir Z. for his alleged role in the sabotage.
Russia has complained that its requests to participate in the Nord Stream probe have been stonewalled by European nations with jurisdiction over the case. Officials in Moscow have suggested that it indicated a cover-up of what they claim was a “terrorist attack.”
Vyacheslav Volodin, the chair of the Russian State Duma, alleged on Thursday that the US government and President Joe Biden were behind the sabotage. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has helped Washington to tank his nation’s economy by forcing it to switch from cheap Russian energy to expensive American supplies, he added.
Berlin refused to comment Wednesday regarding the Nord Stream incident, urging journalists to direct their questions to Federal Public Prosecutor Jens Rommel, who is leading the investigation.