Investigators trying to solve last year’s unexplained blasts that destroyed the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea say they have found traces of undersea explosives on a German yacht that is linked to the incident.
The revelations, announced by Danish, German, and Swedish diplomats in a letter dated July 10, were a small but noteworthy development in the continuing mystery of the destruction of the gas pipelines, which occurred September 26 on the Baltic seabed, east of the Danish island of Bornholm.
The explosions were discovered as residual gas bubbled up to the surface.
Western officials initially blamed Russia for the blasts, which all but destroyed the twin pipelines. Moscow blamed the United States and its allies, saying it had no reason for blowing up an energy link vital to bringing its supplies westward.
The pipelines were built by Russia to bring its gas directly to Germany and Europe, bypassing Ukraine, Poland, and other nations that had hostile ties with Moscow. While the first pipeline was operational, the second had not gotten final approval from German regulators.
The United States had warned for years that the pipelines were a security risk for Germany and other European nations, making the countries beholden to Russian energy exports.
In the months that followed the blasts, the mystery of who was responsible deepened, with a spate of reports by European media organizations that focused on a yacht called the Andromeda that had been rented at a German port by a group of people, some of whom showed Bulgarian passports. German investigators reportedly found traces of explosives on the Andromeda, which had been reported in Bornholm prior to the explosions.
In the July 10 letter addressed to the United Nations, and signed by ambassadors from Germany, Sweden, and Denmark, officials said that traces of explosives used for underwater detonations were discovered among the samples taken from the Andromeda.
None of the three overlapping investigations has been concluded, the letter said.
“It is still not possible to say when they will be concluded,” the letter said. “The nature of the acts of sabotage is unprecedented and the investigations are complex.”
German police in May reportedly raided an apartment in the eastern city of Frankfurt an der Oder, investigating a woman whose former boyfriend was a Ukrainian soldier. According to the reports by the German newspaper Die Zeit and The Wall Street Journal, the soldier was among the crew members on the Andromeda prior to the blasts.
On June 13, the Netherlands’ public broadcaster NOS, along with Die Zeit and German broadcaster ARD, reported that a year earlier, the main Dutch intelligence agency received a tip that a secret plot by Ukrainian operatives was under way to target the pipelines.
The Dutch agency forwarded the tip to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, which then warned Ukrainian officials not to carry out the effort.
That reporting was later corroborated by The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed U.S. officials. U.S. officials were reportedly told by Ukrainian counterparts that the plot had been aborted.
Then, in September, the explosions took place.
The Wall Street Journal also reported that German investigators were examining evidence that suggested the sabotage team had used Poland as a conduit or base for carrying out the attack.
The Ukrainian government has repeatedly denied responsibility for the blasts or any prior knowledge of a plot to destroy the pipelines.