People "connected to Ukraine" may be involved in explosions on Nord Stream pipelines — German media
It is not known who is behind the explosions on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines, but the involvement of Ukrainians is “particularly convincing.”
The German media outlets ZDF and Der Spiegel reported this, citing intelligence agencies.
According to the journalists, the yacht Andromeda, which was used for the bombing, may belong to Ukrainian citizens. And one of the men who rented the vessel lives in Ukraine.
The German prosecutor's office turned to experts who found that the Andromeda could have been used to plant explosives on the seabed.
The yacht could have been rented from the Feeria Lwowa company. According to the Polish registers, the company is registered in Warsaw to Nataliia Ashykhmina from Kyiv. The woman refused to comment on the matter. According to journalists, the company in Warsaw has no office or employees and therefore may be fake.
The alleged bombers used a Romanian passport in the name of Stefan Marcu to rent a sailing yacht. The journalists tracked down the man. He lives in Moldova. Marcu said that this was his old passport number, which expired in October last year.
Investigators assume that the perpetrators used the man's passport details to make another identity card.
The photo in this document is allegedly of a man named Valerii.
In June, federal prosecutor Otte told members of the Bundestag's Interior Committee that he had “almost certainly identified the person who may have been involved.”
The journalists travelled to Dnipro, Ukraine, to find Valerii. There, they found his grandmother Liubov at the address of the apartment registered in the name of his father. She said that her grandson was serving in the army but did not know what he was doing there.
She also said that her grandson could not have been on the Andromeda because he allegedly did not have a foreign passport.
His ex-girlfriend and her son, his sister, and another grandmother live in Germany. They refused to comment.
The journalists claim that law enforcement officers searched Valerii’s family's home and took DNA samples from his son to compare with what was found on Andromeda. No matches were allegedly found.
A few months before the incident, Dutch military intelligence received information that six Ukrainian special forces agents were allegedly preparing a sabotage at Nord Stream.
This was stated, in particular, in the investigations of the Dutch newspapers NOS and Nieuwsuur and the German newspapers Zeit and ARD.
For this purpose, they allegedly rented a boat and special equipment. This was supposed to happen in June 2022. The data was passed to the US intelligence services and then to Germany.
Since nothing happened in June, Germany, according to journalists, did not take additional measures to protect the pipes.
Ukraine denies any involvement.
"I am the president and I give the appropriate orders. Ukraine has not done anything like this," Zelenskyy told Politico.
There is also a theory that Russia was involved and carried out a false flag operation. However, there is no confirmation or evidence of this yet.
In particular, German Federal Prosecutor Otte said that investigators are considering a "working hypothesis" that "state-controlled criminals from Russia" could have been involved.
Earlier, The New York Times, citing US officials, said that a "pro-Ukrainian group" could be behind the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipeline.
At the time, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius called for refraining from premature accusations of involvement of a pro-Ukrainian group in the bombing.
The involvement of Ukrainians in the explosions was also considered by journalists of the ARD television and radio company, the ARD Kontraste magazine, SWR, and ZEIT.
On the night of September 26, 2022, unknown persons blew up three of the four pipes of the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines.
The investigation, which Sweden is conducting jointly with Denmark and Germany, may be completed in autumn 2023.
