Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has laughed off as “nonsense” a media report that the Nord Stream pipelines were blown up by a group of Ukrainian divers on a “small boat.”
The underwater Nord Stream pipelines, which transported Russian natural gas to Germany and other parts of Western Europe via the Baltic Sea, were sabotaged in September 2022 in a series of explosions near the Danish island of Bornholm.
Multiple media outlets reported in August that the German authorities had issued an international arrest warrant for a suspect in the case, a Ukrainian diver identified as Volodymyr Z.
The Wall Street Journal claimed that a team of Ukrainian divers on a small yacht was behind the blasts. The operation was reportedly led by Ukraine’s commander in chief at the time, Valery Zaluzhny. The idea had first occurred in May to “a handful of senior Ukrainian military officers” during “a night of heavy boozing,” wrote the WSJ.
Commenting on the report in an interview to the Russian TV channel Rossiya-1 on Wednesday, Fico said “We read that some drunken Ukrainian officers said they were going to blow [Nord Stream] up. I’m exaggerating a bit, but just imagine that they sailed in a small boat to the place where the pipe was laid… dived a few hundred meters, having taken some pyrotechnics with them, and blew it up. Nonsense.”
According to the WSJ, a six-member crew rented a leisure yacht at a German port and set off armed only with diving equipment, satellite navigation, and open-source maps. The team planted an explosive known as HMX wired to timer-controlled detonators on pipelines located more than 250 feet (80 meters) underwater.
Moscow dismissed the report as implausible. President Vladimir Putin has maintained the view that the explosions were carried out by professionals supported by “the full might of the state, which has certain technologies,” noting that the US was “probably” behind it.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov argued that “only people who are afraid of the truth and are trying to protect the criminal Kiev regime” would believe the diver story.
Fico also argued that the EU “refuses” to answer questions as to who was behind the Nord Stream sabotage.
In September, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called for an honest investigation, claiming that nothing was “being covered up.”
Commenting on the German probe, Lavrov stated that Berlin has not shared any information with Moscow despite numerous requests. He asserted that Russia would insist on a transparent investigation, “which is being blocked by the US, Britain, and their allies.”