Nord Stream explosions: CIA is said to have known about Ukrainian plan months in advance

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The gas leak near the Danish Baltic Sea island of Bornholm (recorded in September 2022)

Photo: Danish Defence Command / dpa

After the explosions at the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea, according to a US media report, further traces lead to Ukraine. As the Washington Post reports, the U.S. foreign intelligence agency CIA learned of a Ukrainian plan for such an attack as early as June 2022, three months before the detonations.

According to the report, the CIA was informed by a European intelligence agency that a team of six members of a Ukrainian elite unit wanted to blow up the Baltic Sea pipelines during a covert diving operation. According to the Washington Post, the team was directly subordinate to the Ukrainian army leadership.

The U.S. then shared the information with European allies, including Germany, writes the Washington Post. The plan is said to have been very detailed – and has great similarities with the actual attack in September. SPIEGEL had already reported in September that the CIA had warned the German government of an attack scenario on the Baltic Sea pipelines in the run-up to the explosions.

The Washington Post now refers to secret documents allegedly shared by US National Guardsman Jack Teixeira on the Discord chat platform. Teixeira was arrested in mid-April after the leak of secret government documents made international headlines.

Indications of Ukraine are intensifying

The Nord Stream pipelines running under the Baltic Sea were destroyed by explosions at the end of September 2022. In recent months, there have been growing indications that Ukraine could be behind the detonations, including through investigations by German authorities.

According to the plan, which the U.S. government learned about from a "close ally" in June 2022, according to the Washington Post, the information originally came from an informant in Ukraine. According to the information, six people involved were supposed to go to the pipelines in a boat rented under a false identity and then dive to the lines to plant explosive devices. Investigations so far indicate that six attackers did the same in September.

According to the Washington Post, those involved are said to have reported directly to the Ukrainian army chief Valeriy Zaluzhnyi. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was deliberately not informed about the plans in order to then be able to credibly reject Ukrainian responsibility.

hba/AFP