A Ukrainian special unit was reportedly planning to attack the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea in June 2022, but the plans were put on hold. The European secret service learned about this from a Ukrainian informant and informed the US secret service CIA and a German secret service. The CIA then forwarded the information to other European countries. The information was believed by the European secret service at the time, while the CIA had yet to gain confidence in the Ukrainian informant.
However, on September 26, 2022, the attack did take place and both strands of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline and one of two strands of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline were severely damaged by underwater explosions with the explosive force of hundreds of kilos of TNT. The majority of the pipelines belong to the Russian Federation, which has been trying to annex Ukraine through a major war of aggression since February 2022. The attack led to EU sanctions against Russia, which then stopped gas supplies via Nord Stream.
The Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office in Germany, which took over the investigations in October 2022, assumes that state actors are the perpetrators. In May 2023, the tracks into Ukraine hardened, but these newly-publicized attack plans serve only as another indication and not proof that Ukraine was responsible for the attack, despite their government’s denial. It’s common for the military to make various plans, with only a fraction being implemented.
The report of the European secret service to the CIA was found by The Washington Post in secret documents that a low-ranking member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard is said to have published in a closed Discord chat. Jack T. is charged with violating the US Espionage Act of 1917. He is accused of sharing secret documents and sharing racist, anti-Semitic, and anti-gay content.
According to the European intelligence report, only a small group of Ukrainian military officials were involved in the plans to attack the Nord Stream 1 pipeline. She was under the direct command of the highest-ranking Ukrainian military officer, while President Volodymir Zelensky was not aware of the plans. The Ukrainian plans envisioned six members of a Ukrainian special unit with false identities renting a boat armed with a submersible, oxygen, helium, and explosives to submerge and destroy the Nord Stream 1 pipeline.
The attack ultimately involved six people, including at least one member of the Ukrainian armed forces, who set sail from Germany in a small, rented sailing yacht and planted the explosives on both Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2. The attack was a violation of international law and resulted in significant damage to the pipelines, leading to EU sanctions against Russia.
