By Russia Desk
Three months before the September sabotage at Nord Stream, the Dutch military intelligence service (MIVD) received information about an “imminent attack” on gas pipelines from a source in Ukraine, informed Political edition. Similar data carry out the Dutch NOS and Nieuwsuur and the German Die Zeit and ARD in their joint investigation into this incident.
According to Politico, the pipelines were originally scheduled to explode in June 2022, but the attack ended up happening in late September. The operation was reportedly personally led by the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (APU) Valeriy Zaluzhny. To participate in the mission was a small group of divers traveling on a sailboat, the publication says.
At the same time, according to Dutch and German media, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy should not have known about the sabotage plan. However, Dutch Defense Minister Kaisa Ollongren, as well as Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra could have been informed of the intelligence received. Representatives of the intelligence service and the Cabinet of Ministers declined to comment on this information to publications.
According to journalists, the Dutch intelligence service immediately passed on the information received about Ukraine’s sabotage projects to colleagues in the American CIA. Edition of the Wall Street Journal in turn writingthat US intelligence agencies took this information seriously, even though they doubted that Ukraine could plant explosives at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. Despite this, the CIA warned Ukrainian authorities that the Nord Stream attack was inadmissible.
On June 6, the Washington Post, citing secret documents leaked on the network, wrote that US authorities had learned of the Ukrainian military’s intention to carry out such a “secret attack” three months before the gas pipelines exploded.
According to the publication, the details of the sabotage plan were collected by a European intelligence service (one of which was not specified) and transferred to the CIA in June 2022. The conclusions of this intelligence service were published on the Discord platform, allegedly by Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira (he was arrested in April on suspicion of leaking secret Pentagon documents). WP claimed to have received a copy of the document from one of Teixeira’s friends.
According to the newspaper, the intelligence report is based on information obtained from an individual in Ukraine. The information from this source in the United States has not been confirmed, but the CIA shared the report with Germany and other European countries in June last year, as stated by its anonymous interlocutors at the publication.
At the US State Department declaredwho do not comment on the information about the warning from Ukraine. “On this issue, we will not comment on the private diplomatic discussions we are having with Ukrainian authorities,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters at a press briefing.
He added that several countries are now carrying out “independent investigations” into the attacks on Nord Stream and that Washington awaits the completion of this process.
Explosions on the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines occurred on September 26, 2022. At NATO, damage to the Nord Streams attached with sabotage, and the Prosecutor General’s Office of Russia reportedthat the incident will be investigated as part of a criminal case under the international terrorism article. Russian President Vladimir Putin in March expressed the view that sabotage was being carried out at the state level. The version about the alleged involvement of some pro-Ukrainian activists in the incident, Putin called it “nonsense”.
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