US Warns Ukraine Over Baltic Undersea Gas Pipeline Explosion

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been revealed to have sent a warning message pointing to the Ukrainian government as behind the explosion incident of the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines installed under the Baltic Sea, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on the 13th (local time), citing government officials.

The reason the CIA sent such a warning message was reportedly because it obtained intelligence from the Netherlands regarding Ukraine's military operations, according to officials. The Dutch intelligence indicated that "Ukraine's special forces planned to operate a diver team to cause the pipeline explosion and were promoting yacht rentals near the Baltic Sea."

U.S. intelligence authorities estimated that either Ukraine or Russia was behind the sabotage of the gas pipelines. This aligns with recent media reports stating that "European allied intelligence agencies shared Ukraine's Nord Stream attack plans with the CIA in June last year."

However, while the CIA took the intelligence seriously, it was reportedly skeptical about whether the Ukrainian military had the capability to carry out the Nord Stream pipeline explosion.

Nord Stream is an underwater gas pipeline that transports Russian natural gas to Europe. In September last year, a series of explosions occurred in three out of four Nord Stream-1 and Nord Stream-2 pipelines installed within the exclusive economic zones (EEZ) of Denmark and Sweden, but the perpetrators have yet to be identified.

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

Earlier, in September last year, three out of four pipelines of Nord Stream 1 and 2, connecting Russia and Germany, were damaged, leading to months of disputes between the West and Russia over responsibility.

All governments with strong motives?Russia, the United States, and Ukraine?strongly denied involvement in the incident. Russia claimed to be a victim of the accident and accused the U.S. of being behind the attack, while the U.S. countered by blaming the Russian government.

Ukraine was also suspected as the culprit behind the explosion due to natural gas exports being a major source of revenue for Russia's military funding, but the Ukrainian government repeatedly denied involvement in the incident.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recently stated in an interview with the German daily Bild, "Our military and intelligence agencies were not involved in the explosion," adding, "If anyone claims that Ukraine was involved in any form in this incident, they must provide evidence."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.