On 26 September 2022 an explosion rocked one of the pipelines of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea. Soon afterwards another explosion shook Berlin’s valuable and costly energy project on the same day . This has been the most significant attack on Germany’s gas supply system since the Second World War.
Investigators and journalists have been trying to determine who was behind the explosions on the German gas pipeline for over a year now. Initially the dominant theory in Germany placed the blame on a group of Ukrainians who allegedly arrived at the crime scene on an Andromeda yacht and planted explosive devices. However, as reported by the German newspaper Welt Am Sonntag, Polish intelligence services have recently provided Germany with a list of individuals who have likely been behind the attacks. At the moment the document is in the possession of the German Federal Intelligence Service and other law enforcement agencies. Some of the individuals on the list have been identified to have ties to Russia. Berlin has not yet provided an official verification of these documents. Nevertheless, the German newspaper notes that investigators are currently skeptical of the new evidence, suspecting Warsaw of intentionally spreading disinformation during the ongoing election campaign in Poland. Furthermore, Germans believe that Ukraine had been planning these explosions since as early as 2014, following the annexation of Crimea.
There is no certainty in Berlin about the individuals behind the incident and it is unlikely that the answers will come to light any time soon. The Welt Am Sonntag quotes Bruno Kahl, the head of the Federal Intelligence Service, who was one of the speakers at the Federal Academy for Security Policy conference in May 2023: “There is evidence regarding all the possible directions of this investigation. No country in the world and no intelligence service in the world are currently able to specifically attribute those to any specific third party”. Nevertheless, there is a growing tension between the Polish and German intelligence agencies. Germans complain that the Poles have not provided enough evidence for their claims.
At the same time, Welt Am Sonntag raises the question of whether the gas pipeline sabotage was a Russian false flag operation, set up to blame the Ukrainians during the crucial times when Ukraine is heavily dependent on German sympathies which dictate the extent of its political and military support. The Andromeda yacht, which investigators believe was used by the saboteurs to reach the site of explosion in the Baltic Sea, was oddly leased from a Polish company owned by an individual named Diana B., who was a member of the electoral commission in the Russian-occupied Crimea in 2015. “Even during the war, she posted photos on social media from Russian Krasnodar. In security circles questions have been raised about how this individual fits into the narrative that it is Ukraine who is the perpetrator”, writes Welt Am Sonntag. At present there are more questions than answers in this matter.
