Denmark on February 26 announced that it had ended an investigation into the explosions that partially destroyed the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines in 2022 and that Western countries initially blamed on Moscow.
"The assessment is that there is no necessary basis to further pursue a criminal case," Danish police said in a statement. However, it added that "based on the investigation, the authorities can conclude that there was deliberate sabotage of the gas lines."
The announcement follows a decision by Swedish prosecutors earlier this month to drop their probe, saying they had no jurisdiction to continue the investigation into the underwater blasts that damaged the pipelines, which were built to bring Russian natural gas directly into Germany and supply the rest of Europe.
While Western countries pointed the finger at Russia, Moscow denied any involvement and blamed the United States, Britain, and Ukraine for the blasts. Those countries have denied involvement.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on February 26 said the situation regarding the investigations was "close to absurd."
"On the one hand, there is recognition of deliberate sabotage, on the other hand, there is no further progress," Peskov said, adding that Denmark had refused requests to provide information about its investigation. Moscow had previously complained that its investigators were not allowed to participate in the probe.
Neither of the pipelines is currently in operation amid a standoff between Moscow and Brussels over Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The blasts occurred on September 26, 2022, on the Baltic seabed east of the Danish island of Bornholm and were seen as an attack on European energy infrastructure seven months after Russia launched its invasion.
The source of the explosions, which were discovered when residual methane gas bubbled up to the surface, has been an international mystery, but evidence uncovered last year by European news organization pointed to
the possible involvement of Ukrainian operatives.
German investigators last year searched a motor yacht that had been docked in Bornholm just before the blasts and reportedly found traces of explosives on the ship, called the Andromeda.
In May 2023, German police raided an apartment in the eastern city of Frankfurt an der Oder, investigating a woman whose former boyfriend was a Ukrainian soldier.
According to reports by Die Zeit and The Wall Street Journal, the soldier was among the crew members on the Andromeda prior to the blasts.
Asked about the state of the investigation earlier this month, a German police spokesman told RFE/RL: "I can inform you that our investigations are ongoing. No further information will be shared at this point.”
The German federal prosecutor’s office repeated that statement on February 26, according to the AP.
The Ukrainian government has repeatedly denied responsibility for the attack.
Nord Stream is majority-owned by Russia's Gazprom and its pipelines were built by Russia to bring its gas directly to Europe via Germany, bypassing Ukraine, Poland, and other countries that had hostile ties with Moscow.
While the first pipeline was operational at the time of the blasts, the second had not received final approval from German regulators.
The United States had warned for years that the pipelines were a security risk for Germany and other European states, making the countries beholden to Russian energy exports.