US intelligence suggests 'pro-Ukraine group' bombed Nord Stream: Report

A US media report claims new intelligence reviewed by American officials suggests that a "pro-Ukrainian group" bombed the Nord Stream gas pipelines last year. 

In an exclusive report on Tuesday, The New York Times said that US officials "believed the saboteurs were most likely Ukrainian or Russian nationals, or some combination of the two." It did not identify the source of the intelligence and the suspected group involved.

The report further said that the anonymous American officials had no evidence implicating Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the sabotage, even though the bombing benefited Kiev by severely impacting Russia's revenue from the sale of natural gas to Western Europe.

Two of the pipelines, known collectively as Nord Stream 1, had been providing Germany and much of Western Europe with cheap Russian natural gas for more than a decade. A second pair of pipelines, known as Nord Stream 2, had been built but were not yet operational.

Back on September 26, three huge gas leaks, preceded by a series of explosions, occurred on the pipelines. The powerful blasts, according to Moscow, knocked out three of the four strings of the Nord Stream network off the coast of the Danish island of Bornholm.

Following the blasts, Denmark, Germany, and Sweden conducted investigations into the blasts. The preliminary results of a joint probe by Sweden and Denmark showed that the blasts had been "intentional sabotage," but the responsibility was not assigned to any party. Moscow, however, has been blaming the West ever since the explosions.

The sabotage, at the same time, added to the pressure of high energy prices on Ukraine's close allies in Western Europe, particularly Germany.

According to the Times' report, the intelligence suggested the culprits behind the sabotage were "opponents of President Vladimir Putin of Russia," which launched a war on Ukraine on February 22 last year.

American officials have "no firm conclusions" about the intelligence, "leaving open the possibility that the operation might have been conducted off the books by a proxy force with connections to the Ukrainian government or its security services," the report further read.

While Western European officials also believe the attack was state-sponsored, "US officials have not stated publicly that they believe the operation was sponsored by a state," the Times added in its report.

"Any findings that put blame on Kiev or Ukrainian proxies could prompt a backlash in Europe and make it harder for the West to maintain a united front in support of Ukraine," it added.

Last month, veteran American investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, in a detailed report published on his blog, claimed that the bombing had been directly ordered by US President Joe Biden and carried out by the CIA with the help of the US Navy.

The White House swiftly rejected the report as "utterly false and complete fiction." The CIA and the US State Department also rejected the report.

The Times' report said that the US officials believed "no American or British nationals were involved."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said last month that Moscow was preparing a special United Nations Security Council meeting on the Nord Stream blasts.

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