Russian ships were at the scene of the Nord Stream crime

Citing anonymous security circles, t-Online reports that suspicious Russian ships left Kaliningrad shortly before the attacks.

A photo from the Danish Defense Command shows the Nord Stream 2 gas leak in September 2022.Danish Defense Command

A few days before the attacks on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, according to a report, Russian military ships are believed to have operated at the crime scenes. The ship association had the necessary equipment to attach explosive devices, as the news portal t-online reported on Saturday, citing information from anonymous security circles and publicly available data.

On September 26, explosions damaged the German-Russian gas pipelines at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. According to t-online, satellite images show that at least three suspicious ships left Russia’s naval base in Kaliningrad on the night of September 21. The “SS-750” has a mini-submarine with grab arms, the tugs “SB-123” and “Alexander Frolow” are equipped with loading cranes. On their way to the scene of the crime, the two smugglers sent position data once on the afternoon of September 21.

Three other ships of the Russian Navy could have accompanied the operation and provided military protection. The Russian Ministry of Defense announced that the corvette “Soobrazitelny” and the frigate “Yaroslav Mudry” had escorted a convoy of ships for training purposes.

A total of four explosions in September in the economic zones of Sweden and Denmark in the Baltic Sea caused several leaks in the Nord Stream pipelines, which were built to transport Russian gas to Germany. The pipelines were not operating at the time of the explosions but contained gas. According to Sweden, sabotage is behind the incident. Accordingly, explosive residues were detected.

Seymour Hersh on Nord Stream: Olaf Scholz is involved in a cover-up

• 
• 

It is still unclear who is responsible for the act of sabotage. Recently there had been indications that a pro-Ukrainian group could have attached explosive devices to the pipelines from a boat and caused them to explode. According to several media reports, the boat was rented by a Polish-based company owned by two Ukrainians. Traces of explosives were later found in the boat.