Kyiv, Ukraine – New intelligence being examined by US officials has taken another step towards solving the mystery of who blew up the Nord Stream pipeline last year.
But information, suggesting that the authors were members of a pro-Ukrainian groupit is extremely vague.
US officials have stressed that not much is known about the perpetrators of the explosions and their affiliations.
Various groups claiming to support Ukraine have sought involvement in the war, although their activities and claims cannot always be independently verified.
Intelligence services suggest that the saboteurs were opponents of the Russian president Vladimir Putin, but they had no known government affiliation, a description that narrows the group of suspects only slightly.
A wide range of pro-Ukrainian groups operate in a shadowy world with unclear links to Ukrainian or other nations’ intelligence or security agencies.
They include groups fighting in southeast Ukraine or carrying out sabotage operations in Russia and its ally Belarus.
The activities of some of them are described below, though no proof that no one was involved in the pipeline attack.
Russian Volunteer Corps
This Russian partisan group, linked to the Ukrainian military, said on March 2 that it carried out a cross-border raid from Ukraine into Russia’s Bryansk region to take control of a small town for several hours before returning to Ukraine.
The group leader is A Russian nationalist in exile who opposes Putin’s rule and has said he wants to inspire armed resistance inside Russia.
It is unclear whether the group, which does not appear to have significant support inside Russia, is acting with the consent by the Ukrainian authorities.
Bypol
Bypol, an organization of Belarusian activists opposed to the government of the pro-Russian president Alexander Lukashenkohe claimed in February that he flew an explosive-laden drone over Belarus, damaging a sophisticated Russian warning plane parked on an airbase’s runway.
Satellite images of the aircraft suggested damage to the aircraft’s radar antenna following the attack.
Bypol later released aerial videos which it claimed corroborated its role in the attack.
Lukashenko Blames Ukrainian Secret Service; Ukraine has denied involvement.
bratstvo
This Ukrainian political party, whose name means Brotherhood, has members fighting in eastern Ukraine, including in special operations.
The party has described itself as a “revolutionary Christian community”.
Its leader, Dmytro Korchynsky, described the group as “Philosophical Circle“, as well as a battalion of soldiers.
In warfare, soldiers of this and other paramilitary groups act under the command of the Ukrainian army.
Four Bratstvo members were killed in a raid on Russian territory late last year.
Honor
This group, which began as a youth movement, is led by Serhii Filimonov, a former member of the Azov organization, a paramilitary group that fought in the war in eastern Ukraine and later joined the Ukrainian National Guard.
the honor remained outside formal military command but, like Bratstvo, it has members fighting in the war in southeast Ukraine.
tradition and order
This group and an affiliated organization, Vendettathey were best known for their violent political actions inside Ukraine before some of their members joined the fight against the Russian invasion last year.
In 2015, members of the group were arrested in connection with arson attacks on shops belonging to former President Petro Poroshenko’s confectionary company.
Some of its members also stormed Ukraine’s parliament building after the country’s 2014 revolution and burned down the office of a now banned communist party.
Its members are also now fighting in the war.
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Source: Clarin
Mary Ortiz is a seasoned journalist with a passion for world events. As a writer for News Rebeat, she brings a fresh perspective to the latest global happenings and provides in-depth coverage that offers a deeper understanding of the world around us.