Reports in the US media that Ukrainian supporters are involved in the disruption of the Nord Stream pipeline, which transports natural gas from Russia through the Baltic Sea, have caused a stir.
Citing US intelligence officials, the ‘New York Times’ newspaper said: The reason for the rupture of the two undersea natural gas pipelines, North Stream-1 and North Stream-2, last year was said to be a conspiracy.
The US intelligence agency was investigating this. Based on newly received intelligence, it has become clear that a pro-Ukraine group caused the breach in the Nord Stream gas pipelines, the newspaper reported.
The United States and European countries are imposing severe economic sanctions on Russia, which launched a war in Ukraine in February last year.
However, European countries, which depend heavily on Russia for their energy needs, have continued to import oil and gas from that country even after the war.
Western countries have suspended imports of coal and oil shipments from Russia in protest at the war in Ukraine.
However, many European countries continue to import gas and crude oil from Russia through pipelines.
In this context, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused the European countries of helping Russian President Vladimir Putin to attack Ukraine by buying oil from Russia.
He asked European countries to stop importing Russian oil and gas.
However, the European countries did not accept this demand because if they stopped buying oil from Russia, it would cause fuel shortage in the European countries and cause economic disruption.
Instead, they decided to gradually reduce their dependence on Russia for their fuel needs.
In this situation, two pipelines, Nord Stream-1 and Nord Stream-2, which are installed under the Baltic Sea to transport natural gas from Russia to European countries, suddenly leaked in September last year.
Due to this gas supply was interrupted and many European countries were severely affected.
In this situation, the American media reported that the gas pipelines were broken by the supporters of Ukraine.
Ukraine’s refusal
Kyiv, March 8: Ukraine has denied its alleged involvement in the Nord Stream gas pipeline rupture.
Regarding this, Oleksii Reznikov, the country’s defense minister, said on Wednesday, “The Nord Stream gas pipeline was broken and it was not our fault.”