Martha Hychko10:38, 08/15/24

According to the media, the head Zaluzhny ignored the order and did not cancel the operation.

The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyi, initially approved the plan to undermine the “Northern Ways”. All agreements were verbal to avoid a paper trail. 

According to The Wall Street Journal , four senior Ukrainian defense and security officials who either participated in the plot or had direct knowledge of it said the pipelines were a legitimate target in Ukraine’s defensive war against Russia.

In June, German prosecutors quietly issued the first arrest warrant for a Ukrainian professional diving instructor for his alleged involvement in the case. The German investigation is now focused on Zaluzhny and his aides, although they have no evidence to present in court, sources say.

The curator of the mission was an active general with experience in conducting special operations. He was directly subordinated to Zaluzhny. In a few days, Zelensky approved the plan. All the arrangements were made verbally, but the following month the MIVD, the Dutch military intelligence agency, learned of the plot and alerted the CIA, according to several sources. US officials immediately informed Germany.

The CIA warned Zelenskyi’s office about the need to stop the operation. The Ukrainian president ordered Zaluzhny to cancel all plans, but the general ignored the order and his team changed the original plan.

After the explosions, Zelenskyi got angry and summoned Zaluzhnyi to a meeting, but the general brushed off his criticism. Zaluzhny told Zelenskyi that the sabotage group remained out of touch after being dispatched and could not be recalled, as any contact with them could compromise the operation.

“He (Zelensky – UNIAN) was told that it’s like a torpedo – once you fire it at the enemy, you can’t stop it, it just keeps moving until it hits,” said a senior officer familiar with the conversation.

General Zaluzhny, currently Ukraine’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, told the publication that he knew nothing of any such operation, and that any suggestion to the contrary was a “simple provocation.” The armed forces of Ukraine, he added, are not authorized to carry out foreign missions, and therefore he will not be involved.

A high-ranking SBU official also denied his government’s involvement in the sabotage and stated that Zelensky, in particular, “did not approve the implementation of any such actions on the territory of third countries and did not issue relevant orders.”

(C)UNIAN 2024