This is one of the most politically and diplomatically sensitive issues of the moment. Efforts to discover those responsible for the sabotage of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines in September 2022 would have significantly tightened the nets around at least two Ukrainians, says the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, after an investigation published Sunday, May 21 and conducted with other German, Polish and Danish media.
This case has seen a proliferation of suspects since the German, Swedish and Danish authorities seized it in October 2022. The Russians were first blamed, then the British, Ukrainians and even Americans were also blamed. Everyone seemed to have a reason to want to sabotage this famous and controversial pipeline. But there was a lack of concrete evidence to tip the scales in favor of either theory.
Fictional travel agency
The veil would begin to lift, says the Süddeutsche Zeitung. It all starts with a mysterious travel agency. Located on a quiet street in Warsaw, Feeria Lwowa boasts of working with several tour operators.
Only problem: on site, there is only a "very small room, with three computers and some documents," noted the German daily. The same address is, moreover, shared by a hundred other companies.
Feeria Lwowa has everything of the fictitious company. However, it would represent "the most promising lead of German investigators to discover who is behind the sabotage," learned the Süddeutsche Zeitung.
It is indeed through this fake travel agency that the yacht Andromeda was rented, used by a team of six people suspected for several months of being responsible for the sabotage.
Revelations from the German magazine Der Spiegel and the North American newspapers Wall Street Journal and New York Times had begun to detail, in March 2023, the strange journey undertaken by Andromeda a few days before the explosion, on September 26, 2022.
The six suspects – some of whom presented Ukrainian passports to the port authorities – boarded the fifteen-meter-long yacht in Rostock, northern Germany.
One of their stopovers is of particular interest to investigators. The Andromeda stopped for some time off the Danish island of Christianso, which is close to the sites of the three explosions that damaged the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines.
The six suspects also left traces on board the yacht of an explosive "of military grade and which can be used underwater", according to the conclusions of the investigators, says the Süddeutsche Zeitung.
The most promising track?
But these individuals have disappeared from circulation. The Feeria Lwowa trail thus appears to be the most promising to try to trace back to the perpetrators of this sabotage. Especially since it has already identified at least two people.
The first is a 55-year-old Ukrainian woman who confirmed to the Süddeutsche Zeitung that she has been the director of Feeria Lwowa since 2021. But this woman also appears as the head of other shell companies in Poland and Ukraine. "For the German authorities, she is a straw woman who allows the real culprit to remain in the shadows," notes the Süddeutsche Zeitung.
The investigators also managed to identify one of the crew members of the Andromeda, thanks to the passports that were transmitted to the owner of the yacht by the Feeria Lwowa agency. The identity documents are forged, but some information has allowed the authorities to discover that one of them, who had presented himself as a Romanian, is actually a Ukrainian from a city south of Kiev and currently engaged on the front line against Russia.
"This is the most comprehensive information to date on the potential perpetrators of this sabotage," said Jeff Hawn, a Russian security expert and consultant for the New Line Institute, a U.S. geopolitical research center.
Other avenues have emerged over the months, starting with the thesis of Russian responsibility. A hypothesis that is based on an abnormally high number of Russian military tugs in the vicinity of the sites of the explosions. But "it is a track that seems cold for German investigators. They analyzed, with the help of the army, the movements of these boats without being able to detect abnormal behavior," notes the Süddeutsche Zeitung.
Washington has also been accused of blowing up a gas pipeline that the United States has always denounced. This thesis supported by Seymour Hersh, a North American investigative journalist who received the Pulitzer Prize in 1970, has been officially denied by the White House.
The mystery remains on the client
But if the new revelations seem to dispel some clouds, "they only allow to have a more precise idea of the facade put in place to execute the plan," nuances Jeff Hawn. The operational aspect seems to involve several Ukrainians, but it is not "irrefutable proof that Kiev is the client", adds this expert.
The investigators "believe that the level of professionalism and preparation suggest that a state intelligence service is involved," said the New York Times, which was the first media to mention the Ukrainian track.
"Nothing prevents the American, Polish or even Russian intelligence services from recruiting Ukrainians to carry out their plans," Hawn said. The use of foreign nationals is a common practice in the history of the secret services, especially Russian. For him, discovering the pharmacy that pulled the strings behind the scenes may take years.
As long as war rages in Ukraine, there is little chance of having the final word on the matter, says the Wall Street Journal. Especially if it turns out that the operation was actually decided by Kiev. "Any evidence of direct Ukrainian involvement may have damaged the unity of Western support for Ukraine. Such a scenario would be particularly sensitive in Germany, which has been slow to abandon its pacifist position to support Ukraine," the North American daily added.
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