Washington Post: US knows Ukraine plans to sabotage Nord Stream

The Washington Post article alluded to sabotage by Kiev, but did not refute the hypothesis put forward by journalist Seymour Hersh that the US had destroyed the pipelines.

Bubbles form in the Baltic Sea after the Nord Stream pipeline leak. Photo: Getty

The Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines were destroyed in a series of near-simultaneous explosions off the Danish island of Bornholm in September 2022. The explosions cut off Russia's vital natural gas pipeline to Europe, eliminating the possibility of European countries lifting sanctions on Moscow and restarting gas purchases.

Three months earlier, the Washington Post reported, “the Biden administration learned from a close ally that the Ukrainian military had planned a covert attack on the underwater network, using a small team of divers who reported directly to the commander in chief of the Ukrainian armed forces (Gen. Valery Zaluzhny).” The CIA learned of the plot from an unnamed European intelligence agency with an agent in Ukraine.

Ukrainian officials did not respond to a request for comment from the Washington Post. The CIA also remained silent, and the White House declined to answer when asked “whether U.S. officials tried to block [Ukraine’s] plans.”

The Washington Post report echoes a New York Times report in March 2023 that a “pro-Ukrainian group” sabotaged the gas pipelines. Germany’s Der Spiegel reported the same, adding that the group used a rented yacht to transport explosives to the scene of the blast.

These theories contradict the assertions of American reporter Seymour Hersh. In February 2023, Hersh claimed that the Biden administration had ordered the CIA to bomb gas pipelines with the help of the Norwegian Navy. The reporter later said that the story about the chartered yacht was planted in the American and German media by the CIA and its German counterpart, the BND, as a distraction.

The yacht resurfaced in a recent Washington Post story, which said the bombers planned to charter it from a European port. The article did not provide any evidence to prove that the US ultimately carried out the bombing.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in March that he “fully agrees” with Hersh’s conclusions. Before Hersh’s article was published, Putin blamed the explosions on the US-UK transatlantic alliance. The Russian president argued that the US benefited in particular from the attack due to its position as a competitive gas supplier to Europe./.

Hoang Pham/VOV.VN (translation)

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