According to reports, American intelligence believes a pro-Ukraine gang was responsible for the damage to the Nord Stream gas pipelines.
According to US officials, there is no indication that Ukrainian President Volodymyr ZelenAWNy or other Ukrainian government officials were behind the attacks that caused natural gas to flow into the Baltic Sea.
According to the article, no strong conclusions have been reached by US officials who have evaluated the intelligence.
The document apparently says individuals who carried out the attacks oppose Russian President Vladimir Putin “but does not define the members of the group, or who ordered or paid for the operation”.
“Officials who evaluated the intelligence indicated the saboteurs were most likely Ukrainian or Russian nationals, or a combination of the two. “No Americans or British nationals were involved,” according to US officials, according to the New York Times.
There has been months of speculation over who was responsible for the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipeline explosions, which transport Russian gas to Germany via the Baltic Sea.
The leaks happened in international waters but within Denmark and Sweden’s exclusive economic zones.
Over several days, the damaged Nord Stream pipelines, built by Russia’s state-controlled energy company Gazprom, released massive amounts of methane, a strong greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere.
The pipeline attacks were described as “an act of sabotage” by the US and NATO, while Moscow accused the West.
Denmark, Germany, and Sweden all stated last month that their investigations into the attacks were still ongoing.
In reaction to the New York Times claims, the Kremlin stated that it is perplexed as to how American officials can presume anything about the attacks without conducting an investigation. Moscow has already accused the West for the blasts, claiming that the US must address questions about its possible role in what occurred.
“Clearly, the attackers seek to divert attention. Clearly, this is a concerted media smear,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told Russia’s state-owned RIA news agency on Tuesday.
“How can US officials make any assumptions without conducting an investigation?”
Mr. Peskov also stated that the countries who own Nord Stream should demand an immediate and transparent investigation.
“We are still not allowed to participate in the probe. “We only received notes on this a few days ago from the Danes and Swedes,” Mr Peskov added.
“This isn’t simply odd. It has the odour of a heinous crime.”
However, Russia’s embassy in the US has stated that the reports are an attempt to deceive those who are “sincerely” seeking to solve the issue.
“We simply do not and cannot accept in any notion of the ‘impartiality’ of the conclusions of the US intelligence services.
“We see the anonymous ‘leaks’ as nothing more than an attempt to deceive everyone who honestly wishes to uncover the truth in this flagrant crime,” the embassy said on Telegram.
“It’s merely a way of diverting suspicion away from people in formal government positions who authorised and directed the Baltic Sea attacks and onto abstract individuals of some sort.”
According to Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova, the media reports on Tuesday highlighted the need of Moscow getting answers to its inquiries about what transpired.
Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior advisor to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, stated that Kyiv was “absolutely not involved” in the explosions and had no information about what occurred.
The German television ARD and the newspaper Zeit claimed on Tuesday, without identifying sources, that German officials had identified the boat involved in the sabotage operation.
According to German media sites, a group of five men and one woman chartered a yacht through a Poland-based company operated by Ukrainian people using false passports. According to them, the culprits’ nationality is unknown.
According to ARD and Zeit, investigators discovered evidence of explosives on the yacht, which the group took from Rostock, Germany, on September 6.
They also stated that intelligence indicated that the attack could have been carried out by a pro-Ukrainian group, but German officials have yet to find any evidence.