NYT “Mobilization of military-trained divers”
Quoted by a U.S. government official
Ukrainian government “not related to the accident”
When involvement is confirmed, there is a concern about the crisis in Ukraine
The New York Times (NYT) of the United States reported on the 7th that pro-Ukrainian forces were behind the mysterious accidental explosion of a gas pipe in the Baltic Sea in September of last year in the North Stream, which supplies gas from Russia to Germany and other Western Europe. Reported. Ukraine immediately denied it, but the repercussions have not subsided, such as claims that Ukraine was involved in the explosion of a Russian military aircraft that occurred at the airfield in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, on the 27th of last month. Analysts are raised that the relationship between Germany and Ukraine, which spare no support for Ukraine, may also be strained.
On this day, the NYT reported, citing a US government official, that “pro-Ukrainian forces were involved in the gas pipe explosion, and it appears that deep-sea divers trained in the military were included.” However, the name of the organization that led the attack was not disclosed. It added that there was no evidence that high-ranking officials, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, were implicated or that the perpetrators were following Ukrainian government orders.
Ukraine denied. Immediately after the report, President’s adviser Mikhailo Podolyak tweeted, “It has nothing to do with the accident. There is also no information about pro-Ukrainian groups.”
On September 26 of last year, three of the four Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines carrying Russian natural gas to European countries were damaged by a powerful explosion at the bottom of the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) between Denmark and Sweden. Russia, Ukraine and the West engaged in a fierce war of nerves over who was behind it. On the 8th of last month, U.S. investigative journalist Seymour Hershey claimed that “the U.S. Navy and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) cooperated with Norway to blow it up.”
North Stream is a pipeline built to supply Russian gas to Europe, and there are pipelines No. 1, which has been in operation since 2011, and No. 2, which was completed at the end of 2021. In particular, Nord Stream 2 was engulfed in considerable controversy even before its construction. Ukraine and the West objected, fearing that Germany’s dependence on Russian energy would increase, but German Chancellor Angela Merkel pushed ahead with it.
In this situation, if it is confirmed that the Ukrainian government was involved, even indirectly, the relationship between Germany and Ukraine, which have supported the main tank ‘Leopard 2’, could deteriorate. Germany, along with the US, is leading the Western sanctions against Russia after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. However, among major European countries, the country’s dependence on Russian energy is the highest (about 40-50%), and internal dissatisfaction with the rise in energy prices after the war in Ukraine is considerable.
More than a year into the war, Ukrainian attacks on the Russian mainland are also on the rise. According to Reuters on the 7th, a memorial service was held at a cathedral in the capital city of Kiiu for four volunteers from the Ukrainian Brotherhood who died last year while raiding the Russian mainland. The Zelensky regime draws a line, saying it “didn’t intervene” in the attack by the volunteer army, but fears of expanding the war to the Russian mainland are rising as the boundary between the volunteer army and the regular army is unclear.
Ukrainian drone attacks on the Russian mainland are also continuing. On the 6th, the Kraken special forces unit of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine released a video of a drone destroying an unmanned surveillance tower in Bryansk, in southwestern Russia, on Telegram. On the 28th of last month, drone strikes, believed to be carried out by the Ukrainian military, broke out in Kolomna, near Moscow, the capital of Russia, and Crimea in southern Ukraine, which Russia forcibly annexed in 2014.
Belarus, Russia’s ally, detained about 20 people on the 7th, claiming that Ukraine and the United States were responsible for the attack on a Russian military plane at the Minsk airfield. According to Reuters and others, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko claimed that they were “terrorists of Russian nationality who were trained by Ukrainian intelligence agencies.” “It is an attempt to fabricate threats to justify Belarusian support for Russian aggression,” Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said.
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Source: Donga