DEMOCRACY NOW
Ukraine’s government has denied a Wall Street Journal report this week that Kyiv approved the plan to blow up the Russian-owned Nord Stream pipelines in 2022. According to the newspaper, a crew of Ukrainian civilians and active-duty soldiers used a rented yacht to reach the pipelines, which deliver Russian natural gas to Germany via the Baltic Sea, and used explosives to sever three of the four pipelines. This comes as Poland says it was unable to carry out a German arrest warrant for a new suspect in its investigation into the Nord Stream attack, a 44-year-old Ukrainian diving professional who is alleged to have attached explosive charges to the pipelines. Polish authorities say the suspect fled to Ukraine in July. For more on the investigation, we speak with German journalist Holger Stark, deputy editor-in-chief and head of the investigative team at Die Zeit, who has been reporting on the Nord Stream attack for years.
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman.
We end today’s show looking at how a top adviser to the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has denied a report in The Wall Street Journal that his government approved a plan to blow up the Nord Stream pipelines nearly two years ago.
In September of 2022, a six-member crew of Ukrainian civilians and active-duty soldiers reportedly used a rented yacht, satellite navigation, sonar, and seabed maps to reach the Nord Stream pipelines on the bottom of the Baltic Sea. Then divers used an explosive and timer-controlled detonators to rupture the pipelines, triggering a massive release of methane gas. The blasts severed three of the four pipelines that carried Russian gas to Europe.
President Zelensky reportedly approved the plan, but later tried to stop it after a Dutch intelligence agency learned of the plot and told the CIA. But his commander-in-chief at the time, Valery Zaluzhnyi, forged ahead despite Zelensky’s U-turn.
This comes as Poland says it was unable to carry out an arrest warrant issued by Germany for a new suspect in the investigation into the Nord Stream attack, a 44-year-old Ukrainian diving professional identified as “Volodymyr Z.” who’s alleged to have attached explosive charges to the pipelines. Polish authorities say the suspect fled to Ukraine in July.
For more, we’re joined in Berlin by Holger Stark, deputy editor-in-chief and head of the investigative team at Germany’s biggest weekly, Die Zeit. He co-wrote this new exclusive report, “Has the mystery of the Baltic Sea attack been solved?” as well as last year’s deep dive, headlined “Who Blew Up Nord Stream?”
Welcome to Democracy Now!, Holger. Can you just lay out what you found? We summarized your results.
HOLGER STARK: Good morning, Amy, and thanks for having me.
Yes, we know, after a almost two-year-long investigation now, that at least one Ukrainian citizen is highly suspected to be a part of this six-people crew that blew up Nord Stream. He’s a father of a son. He was born in Kyiv. He is an engineer by training but also served in the Ukrainian army. We know that he’s a patriot. He posted on Facebook, together with his colleagues, highly patriotic Ukrainian posts, that he would defend until death his home country.
And his traces were found by German investigators. He was brought by a shuttle service, a driver from Ukraine, from Kyiv over Poland, via Poland to Germany. A speed camera, funnily, made a photo of that transport crew. He was identified on that photo, as well. So the German authorities are deeply convinced that he was on that sailing boat.
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