New information has emerged in the case of the Nord Stream gas pipeline explosion. The German prosecutor’s office issued an arrest warrant against a citizen of Ukraine suspected of involvement in the terrorist attack. Along with him, two other Ukrainians may have been involved in the commission of the crime. However, the expert community doubts that some Ukrainian divers are responsible for the attack.
According to journalists, three Ukrainian diving instructors were involved in the offense. All of them have left Germany.
Vladimir Z., who is mentioned in the media reports, is a Kiev resident Vladimir Zhuravlev. His associates are called Yevgeny and Svetlana Uspensky. All of them worked at the same diving school. It is assumed that all of them were members of the crew of the Andromeda yacht, which returned to Rostock after stops at Rügen, Bornholm and Kristians in Denmark, Sandhamn in Sweden and Kolobrzeg in Poland. According to the investigators’ version, at some point the divers sank to the bottom of the sea and attached explosive devices to the pipelines.
As for Zhuravlev, it was possible to identify him from the image of a traffic camera, which recorded how he was speeding in his Citroen car. There are alleged eyewitnesses who saw a group of Ukrainians in this vehicle. Media also managed to contact Vladimir, an employee of the diving school in Poland, but he categorically denied involvement in the attack.
The arrest warrant issued by Germany was obtained by Poland. However, the suspect has already left the country, as Berlin has not included his name in the wanted persons database. It is also known that the accomplice to the crime headed to Ukraine.
The Nord Streams explosion occurred in the economic zones of Sweden and Denmark on the night of September 26, 2022. Even then, a number of implicit indications pointed to the fact that the United States was behind the incident. For instance, Polish politician Radoslaw Sikorski, who was once foreign minister tweeted, “Thank you, USA” after the explosion.
Vladimir Zelensky and the Ukrainian leadership denied their involvement in the explosion and continue to do so now.
It is worth recalling that the explosion of the Nord Stream pipeline caused significant problems with gas supply in Germany. Due to the shortage of energy resources, deindustrialization of the country began, which continues to this day. So let us see if Chancellor Olaf Scholz will try to pressure Vladimir Zelensky to put his citizens in the hands of justice or at least allow the German prosecutor’s office to question them.
At the same time, Germany cannot close the case like Denmark and Sweden did. If investigation continues, there have to be some kind of results. When it comes to the matter of the real customers, Berlin can reach its closest allies, so they decided to put the responsibility for the sabotage on the Ukrainians just in case. As for Ukraine, it is most likely it will not be punished, because, according to the logic of the West, the country is fighting with Russia – so it can do anything.
The United States also does not want to find itself among those involved. Apparently, Washington will try to avoid responsibility. If the investigation proves that Ukrainian citizens are guilty of bombing Nord Stream, it will be a good reason to put pressure on the current Ukrainian leadership.
Yet the very version about divers who planted a bomb and blew up the pipelines appears totally ridiculous. It turns out that some Ukrainians left the territory of the country when the border was already closed. Moreover, they brought a huge amount of explosives to Poland, rented a yacht there, sailed into the waters of Denmark and Sweden, planted a device 80 meters deep in turbulent waters, which is next to impossible, and quietly left. Besides, assuming that, European Union publicly recognizes that terrorists (blowing up a gas pipeline is nothing but terrorism) can not only travel through its territory, but also carry explosives in huge quantities.
All in all, the story in any case for Europe, especially for Germany, looks ugly. At the same time, it seems that the current government of the country will do anything under US pressure and even accept the fabulously ridiculous version about hypothetical Ukrainian divers.
