There is a time bomb between Germany and Ukraine that no one wants to set off. The German government wants to avoid it and the Ukrainian government denies that it is responsible. It is the sabotage in 2022 of the Nord Stream gas pipeline, which supplied Russian gas to Germany. The German justice system and investigations by several media outlets suggest that the perpetrator is a team of divers under the orders of the former commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Valeri Zaluzhni. The situation in kyiv is nervous. And people are irritated that the accusations are nonsense that only benefit Russia. In Volodymyr Zelensky’s entourage, efforts are focused on exonerating the president.
The Nord Stream pipeline was the main source of gas for the German economy until the invasion of Ukraine, when imports through the pipeline stopped. The infrastructure is majority-owned by the Russian state-owned company Gazprom and is also owned by several EU energy companies. The explosion occurred in Danish waters of the Baltic Sea at a depth of 75 metres.
In June, the German public prosecutor’s office issued an arrest warrant for a Ukrainian citizen, a diving instructor, living in Poland. By the time Polish authorities responded, he was no longer in the country. The public prosecutor’s office is also investigating a Ukrainian couple who are diving experts. Police found traces of explosives, DNA samples and fingerprints on the boat that the group rented with false passports and that set sail from the German city of Rostock. The boat was detected sailing in the area of the accident on the dates of the sabotage.
Ukrainian authorities are avoiding the issue, but Mikhailo Podoliak, a member of Zelensky’s office, told Reuters on August 15 that “Ukraine had nothing to do” with the sabotage. Podoliak, like other sources consulted by this newspaper, pointed to Russian authorship: “Such an action can only be carried out with a large capacity of technical and financial resources. And who had all this at that time? Russia.”
Anadolu (Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
The first warning sign for kyiv was published The New York TimesIn March 2023, US intelligence sources said that “a pro-Ukrainian group” was responsible for the attack. The article concluded that there was no evidence that Zelensky or other senior Ukrainian officials were behind it. A news story in The Washington PostIn November 2023, the script changed: the coordinator of the attack would have been a retired colonel, Roman Chervinsky, who reported the preparations to Zaluzhni.
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The final straw was delivered on August 14 by another American newspaper, The Wall Street Journal:The sabotage was planned by a group of military officers and businessmen who provided the funding. The operation was communicated to Zelensky and Zaluzhni, according to the newspaper. The president ordered it to be stopped after the United States demanded it: Washington discovered the plot through the Dutch secret services. Zaluzhni disobeyed and gave the green light to the strike against Nord Stream.
Diplomatic immunity
The general, who is currently Ukraine’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, called this accusation The Wall Street Journal The US media reported that the German police are focusing their investigation on Zaluzhni and his team. The former army chief, as an ambassador, enjoys diplomatic immunity.
Both German media and The Wall Street JournalThe Polish authorities have indicated that they have sabotaged the arrest warrant for the Ukrainian citizen under investigation. August Hanning, former head of the German secret services (BND), accused the Polish government on 16 August in an interview in The Worldof being complicit in sabotage: “According to the German investigation, [la acción] “The decision was made by a Ukrainian team, and if we look at the map, we see that it is only possible with the support of Poland.” “These decisions are not made at our level,” Hanning added, “they are made at the highest political level, and I think there was an agreement between Zelensky and [Andrzej] Doubt [presidente polaco] to carry out the attack.”
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk reacted with a message on social network X: “To all the promoters and patrons of Nord Stream 1 and 2 [son dos gasoductos]the only thing they should do is ask for forgiveness and keep quiet.”
Criticism of the press
Hanning headed the BND during the years of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder’s government, who was primarily responsible for the German part of the construction of Nord Stream. Schröder is one of the few allies that Putin still has in Western Europe. Oleksiy Melnik, co-director of the Ukrainian Razumkov Centre for International Policy and Security Studies, points to these precedents to discredit Hanning’s words. “Journalists should first look at who benefited politically and economically from Nord Stream,” this prominent Ukrainian analyst stressed to Morning Express.
Melnik admits that the German prosecution “may have clues” about the Ukrainian trail, but he dismisses it because it is “practically impossible for [el equipo de buzos investigado] “They could not do it technically.” Melnik argues this assessment based on data provided by Mikhail Gonchar, president of the Strategy XXI Group, a leading Ukrainian expert on security and energy, consulted by this newspaper. “What these Western media storytellers have described in the style of Tom Clancy novels did not exist,” says Gonchar.
The issue has been little covered in the Ukrainian media, says Melnik, who believes that anonymous sources cited by journalists from other countries may contain self-serving leaks from the Kremlin. An article published on August 16 by the Ukrainian media Espresso The article accused the US press of playing along with Russia “in order to denigrate Ukraine and portray it as a terrorist organisation”. The article goes so far as to suggest that the president of the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern – from where the ship under investigation set sail – the Social Democrat Manuela Schwesig, is behind a possible false flag attack to reactivate the import of Russian gas and to obtain economic benefits from it.
“Ukrainian experts should provide arguments abroad because there is a problem, because the publication of these news is aimed at weakening Ukraine on the international stage and presenting it as a terrorist state,” Melnik adds. Gonchar stresses that “the authors of these news are not the same as those of the authors of the report.” [periodísticos] “The Ukrainian trackers do not understand how the vertical structure of the state administration, military command and the leadership of the Ukrainian secret services work, that is why their version is incorrect.” “The Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces does not have under his command such special forces that could hypothetically carry out this sabotage,” says Gonchar.
Melnik says something similar: “If we assume in the very hypothetical case that it was Ukraine, the decision would have to be taken at the highest political level, because it is an operation abroad and because the intelligence services (GUR) depend on the Ministry of Defence, which are not subordinate to the army.” Neither the press reports nor the German prosecutor’s office point to the GUR.
Zelensky vs Zaluzhny
Zelensky has only spoken once about Nord Stream, briefly at a press conference in March 2023 to deny any Ukrainian responsibility. Morning Express has requested the opinion of two advisers from the president’s office for this article, but they have declined to participate. A source close to Zelensky, on condition of anonymity, is convinced that the sabotage is indeed the work of the Ukrainian military, but that the head of state has nothing to do with it: “What happened was planned a long time ago. The military agency that planned it did not share it with the president’s office. It began to be planned with the previous president.” [Petro Poroshenko] along with two other operations.” This source claims that the military “distrusted” Zelensky’s team because his right-hand man, Andrii Yermak, prevented one of these secret operations, the kidnapping in 2020 of members of the Wagner mercenary group on a flight from Belarus to Venezuela.
The source also recalls that “Zelensky’s office has not had the confidence of the military establishment,” and that the situation has changed with the new commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Sirski. The president appointed Sirski as head of the army last February after months of multiple disagreements with Zaluzhni.
Melnik says that the accusations about Nord Stream had no influence on the break between Zelensky and the general: “The distancing was more political, because Zaluzhni enjoyed a popularity that could overshadow Zelensky. And Zaluzhni had his ideas, he is not someone who always obeys with a straight face.” sir, yes, sir”. The co-director of the centre, Razumkov, admits that “there is definitely a risk of damaging relations with Germany”, Ukraine’s second largest military aid ally and the largest power in the EU, “but at the moment it is not an issue that has been discussed at the highest level”.
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