Media: Germany has identified boat behind Nord Stream sabotage
On Tuesday, German news outlets ARD and Zeit reported that German authorities had succeeded in identifying the boat used to blow up pipelines Nord Stream 1 and 2, writes news agency Reuters.
The news outlets does not reveal their sources of information, but both report that a group of five men and one woman had rented a yacht from a Poland-based Ukrainian-owned company.
The six persons have used fake passports and their nationalities are unknown. The yacht sailed from the German city of Rostock on September 6, report ARD and Zeit.
Traces of explosives have been found aboard the yacht.
Media reports that intelligence could point to a pro-Ukrainian group.
That piece of information aligns with a recent article from US daily The New York Times on Tuesday. Here anonymous US officials confirm having seen intel suggesting a pro-Ukrainian group is behind the operation.
On Wednesday, German Minister of Defence Boris Pistorius says that the blown-up pipelines could be a so-called false flag operation, staged to put the blame on Ukraine, writes news agency Reuters.
The term false flag is used of missions aimed at covering up the real perpetrators. Subsequently, the missions can be used as an excuse for military assaults.
The article from The New York Times does not go into the specifics of the intelligence, how it has been compiled or how strong the evidence is.
The officials maintain, however, that no evidence currently incriminates Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy or any other members of the Ukrainian government. Ukrainian government and military officials maintain that Ukraine did not take part in the attack, and that they don’t know who did.
The New York Times writes that the officials all say that intelligence points to either Russians or Ukrainians as most likely saboteurs.
On September 26, 2022, a gas leak was found on Baltic pipeline Nord Stream 2. Shortly thereafter, reports came in that also Nord Stream 1 was hit.
Danish authorities have since reached the conclusions that the leakages were due to an explosion.
