2023-07-12 09:08:02
BERLIN (AP) — Investigators have found traces of underwater explosives in samples taken from a yacht included in the investigations into the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea last year, European diplomats told the United Nations Security Council.
The investigation has not yet established who was responsible or if a state was involved.
Denmark, Sweden and Germany are investigating the September 26 attack. The Danish Foreign Ministry on Tuesday tweeted a letter from the UN ambassadors of the three countries to the president of the Security Council, reporting on their progress to date.
Authorities urged caution in March following media reports that a pro-Ukrainian group was implicated in the sabotage. German media then reported that five men and one woman had used a yacht chartered by a Ukrainian-owned company in Poland to carry out the attack, and that they had sailed from the German port of Rostock.
The German federal prosecutor’s office declined to comment directly on that and other reports, though it did confirm that a ship had been searched in January and said there were suspicions the vessel had been used to transport explosive devices used to blow up the pipelines.
A part of this week’s letter detailing the findings from Germany noted that the ship’s route had not been exactly established. “Traces of underwater explosives were found in samples taken from the ship during the investigation,” the letter said, without going into details.
“At this time it is not possible to reliably establish the identity of those responsible and their motives, especially regarding the question of whether the incident was directed by a state or a state actor,” the text said. “All the information to clarify the matter will be sought during the investigations still underway.”
Submarine explosions ruptured the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which until Russia cut off supplies in late August was the main natural gas supply route to Germany. They also damaged the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which had never come online because Germany suspended its certification process shortly following Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The pipelines had long been criticized by the United States and some of its allies, who viewed them as a risk to European energy security by increasing reliance on Russian gas.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and members of his government have accused the United States of organizing the explosions, which they have described as a terrorist attack. Ukraine has rejected the idea that it might have ordered the attack. Countries investigating the blasts have not commented on who might be behind it.
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