exclusive
Months before the attack, the US intelligence agency CIA warned Ukraine not to attack the Nord Stream pipelines. Western governments, including the federal government, had previously become aware of possible attack plans.
In June 2022, around three months before the attack on the two Nord Stream pipelines on the seabed of the Baltic Sea, the US secret service Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) urgently warned Ukraine against attacking the gas pipelines with an act of sabotage.
This is the result of joint research by ARD-Capital Studio, dem ARD-political magazine contraststo the SWR and the weekly newspaper “Die Zeit” together with colleagues from the Dutch television NOS/Nieuwsuur. The information from the media involved is based on sources in several countries, and the CIA did not want to comment on the matter when asked.
First notice from Dutch military intelligence
The Dutch military intelligence service MIVD apparently received the first indications of a possible attack by a commando from Ukraine. The Dutch had therefore become aware of an attack plan on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline. According to the MIVD, the attack should take place as early as June 2022, using a rented boat.
The Dutch apparently initially shared their findings with the USA and then also warned various European countries, including Germany, of the possible attack. Based on this report, the CIA is said to have warned the Ukrainian secret service against putting such a plan into action.
CIA warns of attack in the vicinity of a NATO naval maneuver
Shortly after the MIVD report, the CIA itself sent out a tip containing new, explosive details of an attack plan. According to the US secret service, the Washington Post reported that the Nord Stream sabotage was to take place around the time of the NATO naval maneuver BALTOPS, which took place from June 5 to 17, 2022 in the Baltic Sea.
The hit squad would use a boat hired under false identities and consist of six people, and plant explosives during diving operations. According to the Washington Post report, the Ukrainian command would be under the command of General Valeriy Zalushnyi, the top general of the Ukrainian armed forces. A request for the new research to the Ukrainian presidential adviser Mychaljo Podoliak initially went unanswered.
doubt sth credibility of information
However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is not involved in the attack plans. According to the Washington Post, however, the Americans also had doubts about the credibility of the information, also because the actual time of the attack had already passed.
In September, shortly after the attacks on Nord Stream 1 and 2, the “Spiegel” and the “New York Times” reported on the CIA tip from June for the first time, without giving any details. According to the Washington Post, after the warning to the Ukrainians, the US authorities had the impression that they had initially suspended their plans.
Attack is political explosives
The fact that the federal government, along with other Western governments, was apparently aware of a possible attack plan by Ukrainian perpetrators is politically particularly explosive. Shortly after the attacks, the Dutch MIVD also reported again and named Ukraine as the country from which the attack had taken place.
However, neither the intelligence information nor the police investigations have actually proven that the Ukrainian state is behind the Nord Stream attack. At the request of “Zeit”, the federal government wanted ARD-capital studio, contrasts and SWR not comment on the new research. In principle, one does not comment on “any intelligence findings or activities”, it said. The Federal Prosecutor’s Office, which is conducting the investigation in Germany, did not want to comment on a corresponding request with a view to the investigation.
In an interview with the “Bild” newspaper last week, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy denied that Ukraine was responsible for the crime. “I’m the president and I give orders accordingly. Ukraine has done nothing of the kind. I would never act like that,” Zelenskyy said.
Investigations largely congruent with warning
However, the warnings of the possible attack correspond in many parts to what German security authorities were later able to determine about the attack. As the ARD-capital studio, contrasts, SWR and “Zeit” reported in March that German investigators were able to largely reconstruct the alleged course of events leading up to the attack.
The investigators from the Federal Police and the Federal Criminal Police Office managed to find the boat with which the attack on the pipelines is said to have been prepared. Investigators also believe a team of six, including two divers and two dive assistants, may have planted the explosives on the pipelines.
This team is said to have left the port of Rostock on September 6, three weeks before the pipelines were destroyed by explosions, with a chartered sailing yacht named “Andromeda”. The “Andromeda” is said to have headed for Wiek on the island of Rügen and later stopped in the port of the Danish island of Christianso, not far from the places where the pipelines were destroyed.
Reported later NDR, WDR and “Süddeutsche Zeitung” that the company that rented the yacht “Andromeda” is a travel agency in Warsaw, but it could be a letterbox company – with a woman as boss who is in Kiev. It is unclear whether she even played a role in the alleged attack plan.
In Frankfurt (Oder), at the end of May, the apartment of a woman was searched who is said to have been the partner of a man in Ukraine who in turn is suspected of being involved in the attack on the pipelines NDR, WDR and “Süddeutsche Zeitung”.
Although the traces in the direction of Ukraine are growing stronger as a result of the new research, it remains unclear who was actually behind the attack.