Zelenskyy reportedly approved operation to blow up Nord Stream and then tried to stop it after CIA intervention – WSJ

The Wall Street Journal has published an investigation into the Nord Stream pipeline explosions in September 2022, claiming that the operation was approved by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who later attempted to cancel it once the CIA became aware of it.

Source: The Wall Street Journal, citing source, as reported by European Pravda

Details: The article notes that in May 2022, several high-ranking Ukrainian military officers and businessmen gathered at a meeting, at which one participant proposed a radical step – to destroy Nord Stream. An agreement was supposedly reached that businessmen would finance and help implement the project, as the army did not have the funds to do so.

People involved in the operation said that it took US$300,000 to implement the plan. 

The operation involved a small rented yacht, the Andromeda, with a crew of six people, including trained civilian divers and a woman whose presence supposedly helped create the illusion that the divers were friends on a cruise.

The WSJ reports that the operation was led by an unnamed general with experience in special operations, who directly reported to the then Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Valerii Zaluzhnyi. He also involved some officers in coordinating the attack, including former intelligence officer Roman Chervinskyi.

More details: Zelenskyy initially approved the plan verbally, as several sources and one officer involved said. But later, when the CIA found out about it and asked Zelenskyy to abort the operation, he ordered that it be stopped. 

Nevertheless, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces at the time, who supposedly supervised the operation, decided to move forward with the plan. Three people mentioned that Zaluzhnyi told Zelenskyy that the sabotage team, once dispatched, was incommunicado and could not be stopped because any contact with them could compromise the operation. 

Zaluzhnyi, now Ukraine's ambassador to the UK, said in text correspondence that he was unaware of such an operation and that any suggestion about it was "a simple provocation". He added that the Ukrainian Armed Forces are not authorised to conduct foreign missions, and therefore he did not take part in them.

WSJ reports that in September 2022, participants of the operation rented a 50-foot recreational yacht, the Andromeda, in the German port city of Rostock on the Baltic Sea. According to Ukrainian officers and individuals familiar with the German investigation, the yacht was rented through a Polish travel agency established by Ukrainian intelligence nearly ten years ago to cover financial transactions.

At the site of the sabotage divers worked in pairs and planted an explosive device deep underwater.

Quote: "Operating in pitch-dark, icy waters, they handled a powerful explosive known as HMX that was wired to timer-controlled detonators. A small amount of the light explosive would be sufficient to rip open the high-pressure pipes," the publication writes.

WSJ also notes that the operation participants discussed the possibility of cancelling the mission due to stormy weather: "Inclement weather forced the crew to make an unplanned stop in the Swedish port of Sandhamn. One diver accidentally dropped an explosive device to the bottom of the sea. The crew briefly discussed whether to abort the operation due to the bad weather but the storm soon subsided, two people familiar with the operation said."

The article also states that German investigators were able to find traces of explosives, fingerprints, and DNA samples from the crew because the sabotage group, in their haste, did not clean the rented vessel. Later, investigators identified their mobile phone numbers.

The WSJ spoke to four senior Ukrainian defence and security officials who were either involved in the planning or had direct knowledge of it. They all stated that the pipelines were a legitimate target in Ukraine's defensive war against Russia.

The German investigation did not establish a direct link between President Zelenskyy and the covert operation.

Background: 

• In the fall of 2022, three out of the four lines of the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines were damaged.
• The United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union called it a deliberate act of sabotage. The Russian authorities claimed that the US and its allies had a vested interest in the incident. The US has denied these allegations.
• In November 2023, The Washington Post referred to Chervinskyi as the coordinator of the attack on the Nord Stream pipelines. Ukrainian authorities and military intelligence denied Ukraine's involvement in the Nord Stream explosions.
• On 14 August, several German media outlets, including ARD, Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) and Die Zeit, reported that in early June, German Prosecutor General Jens Rommel issued the first arrest warrant for the main suspect in the operation, Ukrainian diving instructor Volodymyr.
• However, Spiegel reported that Volodymyr, whom Germany was going to arrest in Poland for his participation in the Nord Stream gas pipeline bombing, left Polish territory as he had probably been warned about their intention to have him arrested.
• The investigation into the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipeline is Germany's highest priority, but its results will not harm relations with Ukraine, Deputy Federal Government Spokesperson Wolfgang Büchner said.

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