Ukraine canceled sabotage at Nord Stream after CIA tip

Kyiv called off the attack on the Nord Stream gas pipelines after receiving a warning from the CIA. Photo: DANISH DEFENCE/AFP

U.S. spy network warns Kiev of attack during NATO exercises in the Baltic Sea

According to Dutch state television, Ukraine canceled an earlier plan to sabotage the Nord Stream gas pipeline after a CIA warning .

< p>Dutch intelligence agents have alerted the US spy network to a Kiev plot to blow up the pipeline in June 2022, at the same time as a major NATO exercise in the area, NOS reported.

CIA officers then warned Kiev not to destroy the strategically important energy line, having received a tip from his Dutch colleagues.

Audacious attack

But the agency was reportedly doubtful that the war-torn nation was capable of pulling off such a daring attack.

The apparent sabotage plot was originally supposed to take place in mid-June, at the same time as NATO's massive naval exercise Baltops 22 in the Baltic Sea .

According to reports, the Dutch intercepted plans suggesting that Ukrainian divers, on the orders of Ukrainian army commander General Valeriy Zaluzhny, would use a rented sailing yacht to plant explosives along the four pipes of Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2.

< p>General Zaluzhny was tasked with giving Volodymyr Zelensky, President of Ukraine, a plausible rebuttal.

A few weeks later, on September 26, a series of mysterious explosions ruptured pipelines, causing a massive underwater explosion. leakage and failure of three of the four pipes.

The apparent attack, which NATO branded as deliberate sabotage, reportedly mirrored almost entirely a Ukrainian plot uncovered by Dutch spies, according to reports.

“Terrorist attack”

Kyiv has always vehemently denied involvement, even accusing Russia in a «terror attack» against the EU.

But intelligence agencies have been investigating a possible connection between the attack and a prominent Ukrainian businessman for some time.

Documents leaked by American pilot Jack Teixeira to the Discord messaging platform as part of the Pentagon's intelligence cache also point to Kiev's involvement.

Last week, The Washington Post reported that the Joe Biden administration had been briefed on a Ukrainian military plot against Nord Stream by a «close» European ally.< /p>

It has since emerged that the Dutch passed the information to Washington in mid-June last year in the hope of preventing any attack.

The details were discussed only by a small group of senior politicians in The Hague and were also passed on to Berlin , who at the time was conducting his own investigation into the bombings.