The Ukrainian federal government was not associated with the sabotage last year of the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea, the countrys defense minister stated Wednesday.
This is not our activity, Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov informed press reporters in Stockholm ahead of a conference with European Union defense ministers, in action to a report in The New York Times on Tuesday that United States officials had seen brand-new intelligence indicating a pro-Ukrainian group was accountable for the sabotage.The Times report stated United States officials had no proof implicating Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the pipeline battle, and it did not identify the source of the intelligence or the group involved.But the attack benefitted Ukraine by badly destructive Russias ability to gain countless dollars by offering gas to Western Europe.It also stoked the rise in energy rates weighing on essential Ukrainian allies, especially Germany.The intelligence recommended that the wrongdoers behind the sabotage were opponents of President Vladimir V.
Putin of Russia, the Times report said.On Tuesday, Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted that Ukraine has absolutely nothing to do with the Baltic Sea mishap and has no details about pro-Ukraine sabotage groups.
The pipelines were burst by subsea explosives in late September, seven months after Russian forces invaded Ukraine.Authorities in Germany, Sweden and Denmark have opened queries into the incident.According to different German media reports, German detectives believe the unknown group was comprised of 5 males and one woman using professionally falsified passports, and who leased a boat that set sail from the northern German port of Rostock.German investigators discovered traces of explosives on the table in the boats cabin, according to the report by German broadcasters ARD and SWR and the weekly magazine Die Zeit.