Der Spiegel published new data on the sabotage of the "Nord Streams". What you need to know

The German magazine Der Spiegel has presented its version of how the Nord Stream and Nord Stream-2 gas pipelines were blown up. According to their data, the sabotage was carried out by a group of Ukrainians, using bombs from compressed air cylinders. What the journalists wrote about and what was the reaction to their data - in the material "Izvestia".

What Der Spiegel wrote about

- Journalists of the German edition claim to have found out a lot of details about what happened in the Baltic Sea on September 26, 2022. According to their version, the sabotage was carried out by a group of 12 Ukrainians, which included civilians and military personnel. The budget of the operation amounted to $300 thousand, of which the perpetrators themselves received nothing, and it was approved at the highest level by the former commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) Valeriy Zaluzhny.

- Der Spiegel's interlocutors said that plans to blow up Russian gas pipelines appeared as early as 2019, and their realization began in the spring of 2022. A team was assembled, which included professional divers and elite military intelligence officers responsible for conducting covert operations. Some intelligence officers were trained by the CIA - this is how Ukraine wanted to form a unit that would not have any Russian informants. One female diver was included in the group to strengthen the conspiracy.

- The main problem for the saboteurs was to find a way to blow up massive pipes more than 50 meters deep in the middle of the Baltic Sea. One bombing expert suggested they make bombs out of compressed air cylinders, filling them with octogenes and hexagenes. This required explosives that were not produced in Ukraine, but the source refused to say where they came from. The bombs had to be detonated at the junction of the pipes, where there was no protective casing of concrete. It was enough to make a small hole, so that then the gas under strong pressure would provoke even greater destruction.

- The preparation of the operation called "Diameter" was reported to Zaluzhny. He, according to the publication's source, came to love the idea and suggested also blowing up the Turkish Stream in the Black Sea. This part of the operation would subsequently fail. At the same time, Zaluzhny did not tell Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky about the preparation, as he did not trust him. Western intelligence services eventually learned of the operation, notified Zelensky and demanded that it be canceled, but Zaluzhny insisted on carrying it out.

- Germany's Federal Intelligence Service also learned of the impending attack and notified the Chancellery, but the government did not pay attention to the information and did not take action. The messages stated that allegedly six Ukrainian saboteurs were planning to rent a ship and blow up the Nord Streams and that they allegedly reported to Valeriy Zaluzhny. Therefore, neither the police, nor the navy, nor the counter-terrorism services became aware of what was going on.

- The saboteurs chartered the yacht Andromeda, on which they loaded homemade bombs disguised as cylinders. First, they used powerful sonar to search for pipelines in the sea, and then identified a suitable site at a depth of at least 50 meters, but not more than 100 meters. In the evenings, the yacht would call at a parking lot in Sweden.

- It took at least one day to plant one bomb. Sometimes the divers lost the bombs or could not set them due to poor visibility underwater. It was also impossible to set the explosives in a storm. A total of six bombs were recovered, of which five later exploded. On September 19, the Andromeda arrived in Poland, and the crew returned to Ukraine.

- On the way home, the saboteurs' van was spotted by a speed camera, causing the German police to get on their trail. Germany issued an arrest warrant for officer Vladimir Zhuravlev, but Poland did not help in the investigation and warned the saboteurs. A Ukrainian military attaché could have helped to bring Zhuravlev to Ukraine from Poland. The participants in the sabotage believe that they destroyed a military facility that was used by Russia to blackmail Germany, and therefore did a good deed for both Kiev and Berlin.

How Russia and the world reacted

- Shortly after the publication of the material, the representative of the German Cabinet of Ministers Christian Hoffmann said that the German government takes note of the published data, but does not comment on it. After the publication, the Kremlin recalled that Moscow was previously aware of Kiev's attempts to blow up the Turkish Stream - Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke about them.

- Der Spiegel has in the past already published sketchy data pointing to the guilt of the Ukrainian side in undermining gas pipelines. However, they faced a lot of refutations. For example, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova pointed out in August 2024 that with such a journalistic investigation the West wants to absolve itself of responsibility for the terrorist attack on the Nord Streams.

- Experts pointed out that it was impossible to carry out such an operation without the knowledge of Western intelligence services in the area under the control of NATO ships. Ultimately, the terrorist attack could not happen without the knowledge of the United States, especially since before the explosions, the country's President Joe Biden promised that "there will be no "Nord Stream - 2".

- The version with Ukrainian saboteurs was opposed by the fact that it could not be carried out without special underwater equipment. To deliver it to the place of the explosion required a much larger vessel than an ordinary yacht rented on shore.

- Ukraine blamed Russia for the incident, as it was the only country that allegedly had the technical and financial capabilities to carry out the operation. Moscow, for its part, pointed out that the main beneficiary of the attack was the United States, which was able to supply more of its expensive gas to the European market, and insisted on its participation in the investigation of the sabotage. However, neither Germany, Denmark, nor Sweden allowed Russian specialists to participate in the investigation.