Alexander Topchy13:35, 03/25/23

Military exercises of the Russian Federation in the Baltic Sea with the participation of a special unit trained to conduct underwater sabotage operations could serve as a cover for the operation to undermine pipelines.

Russia becomes the main suspect in explosions on the branches of the Nord Stream gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea. Its warships with underwater equipment were spotted at the scene just a few days before the incident.

This is written by the publication t-online , citing sources in the security services and publicly available data. A group of Russian ships had the necessary equipment for attaching explosive devices.

The explosions that damaged three of the four branches of the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines occurred on September 26, 2022. According to satellite images, on the night of September 21, at least three suspicious ships left the Russian naval base in Kaliningrad.

These were the SS-750 search and rescue vessel, equipped with a mini-submarine with grabs, as well as the SB-123 and Alexander Frolov tugboats, equipped with loading cranes. En route west, two tugs sent position data once on the afternoon of 21 September.

Three more ships of the Russian Navy could accompany them to provide military cover for the operation. These were the Syzran reconnaissance ship, the Soobrazitelny corvette and the Yaroslav the Wise patrol ship.

The Russian Defense Ministry said that the corvette and patrol ship accompanied the ships as part of military exercises.

Explosion at the Nord Stream gas pipeline – what is known

As UNIAN reported earlier, in September 2022, three of the four strands of the Russian Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines were damaged in a mysterious explosion . At the time of the incident, they were not functioning: Russia stopped pumping gas through Nord Stream 1 for far-fetched reasons to blackmail Europe, and Nord Stream 2 was never put into operation due to Russian aggression against Ukraine.

Accused of war crimes, Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed the “Anglo-Saxons” for the incident . And in the West, Russia itself was suspected of undermining the gas pipeline.

In early March 2023, the New York Times, citing sources, reported that a Ukrainian group could be behind the attack on Nord Stream . At the same time, if such a group existed and really committed this sabotage, it acted without instructions from the Ukrainian authorities.

Commenting on this message, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius urged not to draw hasty conclusions and noted that the attack on Nord Stream could have been a false flag operation.

(C)UNIAN 2023