Advisor to President Selenskyj denies Ukraine’s involvement in Nord Stream gas pipeline explosion

JAKARTA – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s adviser Mykhailo Podoliak denied his country’s involvement in the explosion that damaged the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea and blamed Russia.

“Such an action can only be carried out with enormous technical and financial means. And who had all these means at the time of the bombing? Only Russia,” Podolyak said in his written comment to Reuters.

The multi-billion dollar Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines through the Baltic Sea collapsed in September 2022 due to a series of explosions, seven months after Russia launched a massive invasion of Ukraine.

Previously, the German public prosecutor’s office had issued an arrest warrant against a Ukrainian diving instructor living in Poland who is suspected of being involved in a terrorist attack on the Nord Stream pipeline.

Polish prosecutors said on Wednesday that Poland had received a European arrest warrant issued by Germany in connection with the attack, but the suspect, a Ukrainian named Volodymyr Z., had left Poland.

Earlier Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported that high-ranking Ukrainian officials were involved in the incidents.

“Ukraine has nothing to do with the Nord Stream explosion,” Podolyak said, adding that Ukraine had gained neither strategic nor tactical advantages from the explosion.

Russia itself blames the United States, Great Britain and Ukraine for the explosion, which largely cut off Russian gas supplies from the lucrative European market. However, these countries deny any involvement.

Meanwhile, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office has filed charges of international terrorist attacks in connection with the acts of sabotage at Nord Stream, Sputnik reported.

It is known that Germany, Denmark and Sweden have launched investigations into the incident. Sweden found traces of explosives on several items at the explosion site, confirming that the explosion was deliberate.

Nord Stream AG, the operator of the pipeline, said that there had never been any damage to the pipeline network before and that it was difficult to estimate how long it would take to repair the damage.

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