A high-ranking European Union official announced the Nord Stream pipeline damage Tuesday resulted from apparent acts of sabotage.
“All available information indicates those leaks are the result of a deliberate act,” said Joseph Borell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Wednesday. “Any deliberate disruption of European energy infrastructure is utterly unacceptable and will be met with a robust and united response.”
After scientists reported seismic events in the Baltic Sea, underwater pipelines supplying natural gas from Russia to Germany were found to be damaged.
The Epoch Times further reported:
Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, told reporters that sabotage could not be ruled out as the cause behind the unexplained gas leaks that hit Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines on Sept. 26.
The two pipelines carry natural gas through the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany. Both pipelines were not in operation but still contained gas at the time of the leaks.
“It is hard to imagine that it is accidental. We cannot rule out sabotage, but it is too early to draw conclusions,” Frederiksen told Politiken, a Danish daily newspaper.
Frederiksen was in Poland attending the inauguration of the Baltic Pipe in a symbolic “valve opening” on Sept. 27. The new undersea pipeline is a new gas supply corridor that will carry gas from Norway to Denmark and Poland, with an annual capacity of 10 billion cubic meters per day. The pipeline is seen as a measure to cut EU reliance on fossil fuels from Russia.
Referring to the Nord Stream leaks, Frederiksen said the situation was “extraordinary” and “unusual.” “It is hard to imagine that what is happening is a coincidence,” she told reporters on Sept. 27.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki had also suspected subversion. At the pipeline ceremony, he told attendees, “Today we faced an act of sabotage, we don’t know all the details of what happened, but we see clearly that it’s an act of sabotage, related to the next step of escalation of the situation in Ukraine.”
Nord Stream AG, the operator of the network, issued a statement that noted the close timing of the three leaks. It told reporters, according to Reuters: “The destruction that occurred on the same day simultaneously on three strings of the offshore gas pipelines of the Nord Stream system is unprecedented.”
“Currently, it is not possible to estimate a timeframe for restoring the gas transport infrastructure,” the operator announced in a separate statement. “The causes of the incident will be clarified as a result of the investigation.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, when asked about the damaged pipeline, told reporters that “No option can be ruled out right now,” reported the state-run TASS news agency.
He also said that Russia is “extremely concerned” about the leaks. “Certainly, this is an issue related to the energy security of the entire continent,” Peskov said.
Ukraine blamed Russia but that makes no sense. Russia had already stopped sending natural gas to Europe through the lines so it did not decrease supply. Ukraine, on the other hand, has been actively engaged in sabotage of Russian assets so it may a case of “you smelt it, you dealt it.”
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