Volodymyr Z was reportedly part of a team of six experienced Ukrainian divers who in September 2022 chartered a German yacht to fly over the Nord Stream pipeline and planted explosives that ruptured some pipelines.
Pipelines have been condemned in the West as a national security risk. They have made it less difficult for Russia to sell fuel to Europe despite sanctions similar to its invasion of Ukraine.
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The underwater detonations on the Nord Stream pipelines, built to transport Russian vegetable fuel to Germany, occurred in foreign waters but in the economic zones of Sweden and Denmark. Sweden previously said that a state actor was likely the ultimate culprit.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the plan took four months to implement and cost about $300,000. The organization brought in a diver so they could pretend to be an organization that was going on a cruise with excitement.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meets with unrepresented US Senator Lindsey Graham in kyiv, Ukraine on March 18, 2024 (Presidency of Ukraine/Anadolu Getty Images).
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy first supported the plan, but after the CIA found out and asked him to stop it, he tried to prevent it. The WSJ reported that Commander-in-Chief Valeriy Zaluzhniy ignored the order and went ahead with the plan. plan.
Four senior Ukraine defense and security officials told the outlet that the pipelines were a valid target in the war. Zaluzhniy denied the allegations, saying he had no knowledge of the operation and called the allegations “mere provocation. ”
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German intelligence officers raised concerns that, despite these reports, they believe it is entirely possible that this amounts to a Russian “false flag operation” that could cover up the country’s involvement in self-sabotage that helped justify their continued invasion of Ukraine, according to Politico, citing German publication Welt am Sonntag.
Politico reported that Polish security agents supported this theory and had sent a document containing the names of the Russian suspects to the German Federal Intelligence Service, the Germans remained convinced of Ukraine’s responsibility.
A screenshot from the Danish Defense shows a fuel leak causing bubbles on the surface of the water in the sea in Sweden, on September 30, 2022. (Swedish Coast Guard document/Anadolu Getty Images Agency)
German media named two other suspects: Svitlana and Yevhen Uspenska, a married couple who run a diving school in Ukraine. They denied any involvement, and Svitlana Uspenska said she was in Kyiv at the time of the incident.
Germany, Denmark and Sweden opened investigations into the incident; Sweden and Denmark closed their investigations earlier this year.
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Sweden had discovered lines of explosives in several objects recovered from the site, confirming that it was indeed an act of sabotage, but the Swedes and Danes thought they did not have “sufficient grounds” to initiate criminal proceedings.
Denmark’s decision to close the investigation was expected, Kenneth Øhlenschlæger Buhl of the Royal Danish Defence College told The Associated Press.
President Vladimir Putin presides over an assembly with members of the Russian government at the Novo-Ogaryovo apartment on Aug. 7, 2024 (SERGEI BOBYLYOV/POOL/AFP Getty Images)
“The Swedes said they had a pretty good idea of who he was, but they didn’t have jurisdiction over who they wanted to communicate with,” Øhlenschlæger Buhl said. The Danes say “the same words, just a little bit different. “
In 2023, U. S. intelligence reported that the attack had been carried out by a pro-Ukrainian organization, and then-National Security Council spokesman John Kirby demonstrated that the United States believed “it was an act of sabotage,” although he emphasized that it was not involved.
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Neither the US State Department nor the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry responded to a request for comment from Fox News Digital at the time of publication.
Fox News Digital and Associated Press contributed to this report.
Peter Aitken is a Fox News Digital reporter focusing on national news.
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