The US, Germany, and Ukraine comment on the NYT report that says US officials have seen new intelligence that indicates a “pro-Ukrainian group” was behind the Nord Stream sabotage.
US officials have seen new intelligence that indicates a “pro-Ukrainian group” was responsible for the sabotage last year of the Nord Stream gas pipelines, the New York Times reported Tuesday.
In a report that did not identify the source of the intelligence or the group involved, the Times said the US officials had no evidence implicating Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the pipeline bombing.
The intelligence suggested that the perpetrators behind the sabotage were “opponents of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia,” the Times report said.
But the US officials had no indication of who exactly took part and who organized and paid for the operation, which would have required skilled divers and explosives experts.
They believed those involved were probably Ukrainian or Russian nationals and that none were from the United States or Britain.
The officials have “no firm conclusions” about the intelligence, “leaving open the possibility that the operation might have been conducted off the books by a proxy force with connections to the Ukrainian government or its security services,” the New York Times report indicated.
The Nord Stream gas pipelines were ruptured by subsea explosives on September 26, seven months after the start of the Ukraine war.
In February, veteran US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh reported that with Norway’s assistance, the United States was behind the operation to bomb the pipelines.
Back then, the White House described Hersh’s report, which cited an unnamed source, as “complete fiction.”
Source: Almayadeen
