The Office of the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky identified the publications about Ukrainian participation in the sabotage of the Russian gas pipelines “Nord Stream” in the Baltic Sea in September 2022 as “complete nonsense”, reported France Press, quoted by BTA.
Newspaper “Wall Street Journal“ claims that the former chief of the Ukrainian General Staff, Valery Zaluzhny, led a plan to blow up the pipelines, which at the time were still supplying Europe with Russian gas, despite the invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops on February 24, 2022.
„Ukraine's participation in the explosions of “Nord Stream” is complete nonsense. These actions did not represent any practical interest for Ukraine,”, presidential adviser Mykhailo Podoliak told AFP, reacting to the article in the American daily.
According to the “Wall Street Journal” Ukrainian President Zelensky was aware of the plan before changing his mind and calling for its implementation to be halted.
Presidential advisor Podoliak noted that Ukraine's participation in sabotage could “put an end” of the aid provided to Kyiv by its “European partners”. However, he defined Moscow's motives for destroying the gas pipeline as “obvious”.
„Russia felt it necessary to discredit Ukraine in order to reduce its diplomatic, emotional and informational influence on the European community”, even if it meant “losing the trade opportunities of the "Nord Stream", Podoliak said.
The claims of the “Wall Street Journal” they come a day after revelations in the German press that a judicial investigation into the sabotage in Germany has followed a Ukrainian trail, with an arrest warrant recently issued for a professional Ukrainian diver.