2024-08-17 09:52:45
The office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described the publications about Ukrainian participation in the sabotage of Russian gas pipelines “Nord Stream” in the Baltic Sea in September 2022 as “complete nonsense”, reported France Press.
The Wall Street Journal claimed that former chief of the Ukrainian General Staff Valery Zaluzhny led a plan to blow up the pipelines, which at the time were still supplying Europe with Russian gas, despite the invasion of Russian troops into Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
“Ukraine’s participation in the Nord Stream explosions is complete nonsense. These actions were of no practical interest to Ukraine,” presidential adviser Mykhailo Podoliak told AFP, reacting to the article in the American daily.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Ukrainian President Zelensky was aware of the plan before changing his mind and calling for a halt to its implementation.
Presidential adviser Podoliak noted that Ukraine’s involvement in the sabotage could end the aid provided to Kiev by its European partners. However, he described Moscow’s motives for destroying the gas pipeline as “obvious”.
“Russia felt it was necessary to discredit Ukraine in order to reduce its diplomatic, emotional and informational influence on the European community,” even if that meant “losing Nord Stream’s commercial opportunities,” Podoliak said, quoted by BTA.
The Wall Street Journal’s claims come a day after revelations in the German press that a judicial investigation into the sabotage in Germany has followed a Ukrainian trail, with an arrest warrant recently issued for a professional Ukrainian diver.