Two Ukrainians are said to be involved in the Nord Stream blast

BERLIN. At least two Ukrainians may have been involved in the blasting of the two Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea. The suspected ship Andromeda, on which the investigators want to have found explosive residues, had previously been rented by a Polish mailbox company in Warsaw, which claims to be a travel agency Southgerman newspaperNDR and WDR as well as Swedish, Polish and Danish media.

The official owner of the dummy company, a 32-year-old woman from the city of Kerch on the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula, is therefore unaware that the company, which was founded in 2016, belongs to her. Since 2021, the company has been headed by a 55-year-old Ukrainian, who is said to have confirmed her company presidency by telephone, but did not respond to further emails. According to reports, she is also the director of several companies in Poland and Ukraine and acts as a paid front woman to disguise the real backers. Although the Polish front company has not generated anything since it was founded in 2016, it is said to have suddenly recorded sales of 2.8 million euros in 2020.

Ukrainian soldier is said to have hired Andromeda

At the tenant of Andromeda According to the research, it could be a 26-year-old Ukrainian, a member of the Ukrainian military, whose identity has not yet been fully clarified. A relative of the man told journalists that the man did not leave Ukraine last fall and is currently fighting Russia as a soldier. Another man from near Odessa is said to have been passively involved in the attacks “rather in a supporting role”, the media reports without concrete information.

It is still unclear who is behind the attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines on September 26, 2022. Russia, the USA, Poland and Ukraine officially deny responsibility. At the end of April it became known that a Russian ship specially equipped for underwater operations is said to have circumnavigated the gas pipelines in Ort four days before the explosion. Based on an anonymous source, the US journalist Seymour Hersh suspects the USA to be the mastermind. None of the theories that have been put forward and publicly discussed so far have been proven. The investigation into Nord Stream continues. (approx)