Western officials play down claims of Ukraine role in Nord Stream explosions

Western officials have sought to play down allegations of Ukrainian involvement in the explosions that destroyed the Nord Stream gas pipelines last year, despite media reports suggesting a pro-Kyiv group carried out the attack.

Nato, EU and Swedish officials all urged caution about assigning blame for the attempt on the pipelines linking Russia with western Europe, while Germany’s defence minister Boris Pistorius on Wednesday suggested a ‘false flag’ operation may have been responsible.

According to German media reports, investigators found that a boat suspected of being used to conduct last year’s attack was rented by a Poland-based company with Ukrainian owners, and had retained traces of explosives.

The country’s attorney-general’s office on Wednesday confirmed it had searched a vessel suspected of being “used to transport explosive devices” for the underwater bombings that damaged the pipelines in the Baltic Sea in September.

Any conclusive evidence that a pro-Ukrainian group was responsible for the attack would put immense strain on relations between Kyiv and Berlin.

Pistorius said the attackers could have left deliberately misleading clues. “It is also being discussed that this could be a so-called false flag operation,” he said. “This would also not be the first time in the history of such events.”

The German defence minister added that, even if the perpetrators were proved to be Ukrainian, it would be important to “clearly distinguish” whether the group was acting with the knowledge of the country’s government.

The German attorney-general’s office said it was not yet possible to make “any reliable statements” about whether the attack had been ordered by a state. Employees of the German company that owned the boat were not suspected of any wrongdoing, it said.

National investigations in Denmark and Sweden are also continuing.

Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg urged caution when asked if the alliance could confirm that Ukraine was involved in the sabotage.

“We have not been able to determine who was behind [it].” he said. “There are ongoing national investigations, and I think it’s right to wait until those are finalised before we say anything more about who was behind [it].”

“I am not afraid of the truth,” said Josep Borrell, the EU’s top diplomat. “But we are talking about . . . speculations. As long as investigations are ongoing, we cannot draw definitive conclusions.”

Swedish defence minister Pål Jonson also said he did not “want to jump into any kind of conclusions about the attribution”.

Ukraine on Tuesday denied any involvement in the explosions.

Last year’s attacks came several months after Russia had stopped piping gas through the Nord Stream 1 pipelines that had been operational since 2011. The Nord Stream 2 pipelines, which had been intended to come online in 2022, were blocked by German regulators months before Russia invaded Ukraine.