“The damage suffered by the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines in international waters of the Baltic Sea is very worrying. All currently available information indicates that it is the result of deliberate, reckless and irresponsible acts of sabotage,” reads the bloc’s statement. military.
The alliance pointed out risks to navigation and considerable environmental damage as a result of the act.
“We support the ongoing investigations to determine the origin of the damage,” he said before expressing his commitment to deterrence and defense “against the coercive use of energy and other hybrid tactics by state and non-state actors.”
Meanwhile, the German security organs recognized today the possibility of large explosions as the cause of leaks registered in pipes of the Russian North Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines.
To create such a magnitude of damage, explosives equivalent to 500 kilograms of TNT had to be used, says the daily Der Spiegel. This is also based on several seismic monitoring centers, says the publication.
The company North Stream AG referred last Tuesday to unprecedented destruction in the three pipes of the aforementioned gas pipelines, indicated Berlin television.
Even the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, who advocates suspending purchases of hydrocarbons from Russia, had to describe these incidents as sabotage.
Von der Leye stressed that the willful violation of Europe’s energy infrastructure was unacceptable and would lead to the most severe response measures, she stated.
The Russian Embassy in the United States commented this Thursday on its social networks the attempts of some US legislators to blame Russia for the incidents that occurred in the Nord Stream gas pipelines, highlighting that, in reality, there are facts that may indicate the opposite.
Thus, he mentioned the activity of US warships a day before there is a failure in the Russian infrastructure there, as well as the US Navy exercises with underwater explosives that were carried out in the Same area a while ago.
In this way, the Embassy raised the question: “Who benefits from the rupture of the gas pipelines?”. According to the legation, “the answer is on the surface.”
On the same day, the spokeswoman for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, María Zajárova, assured that the emergencies in the Nord Stream gas transportation system took place in an area controlled by the United States secret services.
“It’s the commercial and economic zone of Denmark and Sweden, and these are two very NATO-focused countries that are riddled with American weapons, these are the same countries that are completely controlled by American intelligence services. They are absolutely and precisely under the control of the US intelligence services, which are in total control of the situation there,” he said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov recalled on Wednesday the statements made by US President Joe Biden last February, when he promised that he would put an end to Nord Stream 2.
In this regard, Zajárova maintained that the US president “is obliged to answer the question of whether the United States carried out its threat on September 25 and 26, 2022.”
The spokeswoman stressed that “the declaration of intent was backed by a promise” and that “one has to take responsibility for his words.” “Not understanding what is said does not exempt from responsibility. Europe must know the truth!”, she concluded.
In addition, the spokeswoman announced that Moscow intends to convene a meeting of the UN Security Council to deal with the issue of breakdowns.
The news about the leaks did not take long to generate all kinds of reactions.
“As we say in Polish, a small thing, but a lot of joy,” former Polish Foreign Minister and current MEP Radoslaw Sikorski wrote on his Twitter account.
He also retweeted a video from the first days of February in which US President Joe Biden threatened to end Nord Stream 2. “If Russia invades (Ukraine)… then there will be no Nord Stream 2. We will end it.” said the president.
Finally, he published another tweet with the comment: “Thank you, USA”, along with a photo showing the size of the leak on the surface of the Baltic Sea. “Is it an official statement of a terrorist attack?” María Zajárova reacted on her Telegram account, after Sikorski’s publications.
(With information from RT in Spanish and Prensa Latina)