The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday that German detectives are scrutinizing evidence that hints at a sabotage squad utilizing Poland as their headquarters to inflict damage on the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea in September.
The newspaper disclosed that the investigators have pieced together the fortnight journey of “Andromeda”, a 50-foot yacht, suspected to play a part in the disruption of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines.
According to individuals knowledgeable about the journey, the Wall Street Journal reported that the saboteurs allegedly planted deep-sea explosives on Nord Stream 1 and then navigated the vessel towards Poland. The paper also noted Germany’s attempt to link DNA samples recovered from the boat to at least one Ukrainian soldier.
Neither Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office nor the Polish government spokesperson provided an immediate response to Reuters’ requests for comment. However, a high-ranking Polish official insinuated that the news report may be a consequence of Russian propaganda.
Stanislaw Zaryn, the deputy to Poland’s Minister Coordinator of Special Services, expressed on Twitter, “The consistent reference in the media to Polish or Ukrainian involvement in the disruption of NS1 and NS2 is perpetually leveraged by the Russian influence machinery to implant the notion that Warsaw and Kiev orchestrated this incident.”
The spotlight fell on Europe’s dependence on Russian natural gas following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The obliteration of the Nord Stream pipelines hastened Europe’s transition to alternative energy suppliers.
Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2, each composed of two pipelines, were constructed by Russia’s state-owned Gazprom to transport 110 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually to Germany.
The Washington Post revealed earlier this week that the U.S. had knowledge of a Ukrainian scheme to target the pipelines three months prior to their destruction by the blasts, which took place in the economic zones of Sweden and Denmark.
Both nations confirmed the explosions were intentional, but the perpetrator remains unidentified.
In March, German press hinted at the possible involvement of a yacht from a company based in Poland, owned by Ukrainian nationals, in the attack.
In a statement to German media on Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy asserted that Ukraine was not responsible for the pipeline attacks.
