Germany has failed to warn the Navy, federal police or counterterrorism agencies about a potential sabotage operation on the Nord Stream gas pipeline, German newspaper Der Spiegel reported.
On November 20, Der Spiegel reported that Germany had received several warnings from other Western intelligence agencies, including the CIA, about a suspected attack by Ukraine on the Nord Stream gas pipeline about three months before the incident. However, Berlin simply dismissed the information as "false" and did not respond promptly.
According to Der Spiegel, several Western intelligence agencies were reportedly informed by a Swedish agent that a sabotage operation was being prepared as early as June 2022.
The German Federal Intelligence Service (BND) received encrypted messages from foreign colleagues, including the Dutch intelligence agency and the CIA, that month.
The German magazine said the warnings contained details of the upcoming attack. According to Der Spiegel, the BND was informed that at least six Ukrainian special forces soldiers with fake ID cards were planning to "huge a ship, sink into pipelines at the bottom of the Baltic Sea with special equipment and blow them up".
The operation was given the green light by then-Ukrainian Commander General Valery Zaluzhny. The attack is scheduled to coincide with NATO's BALTOPS maritime drill, which is scheduled to be held in the Baltic Sea from June 5-17, 2022.
According to Der Spiegel, the BND only forwarded the information to Chancellor Olaf Scholz's office after the exercises were over. The German government considered the information "irrelevant" because nothing happened during the drills.
"At that time, the dominant view in the security establishment was that this information was wrong. Despite the warnings, the German side was not prepared to prevent a possible attack. The federal police, the Navy and the federal and regional anti-terrorism agencies were not informed, the magazine wrote.
Berlin has opened a criminal investigation into the incident after the gas pipelines were damaged at the end of September 2022. German authorities have yet to provide any official information about the investigation.
In August, German media reported that law enforcement officials had issued the first arrest warrant in the case, allegedly for a Ukrainian citizen identified as "Vladimir Z". According to Der Spiegel, the man was one of the divers involved in the sabotage operation.
Meanwhile, Russia has denied reports that a small group of Ukrainians were responsible for the Nord Stream sabotage. Last month, Danish media revealed that US Navy warships were operating near the Nord Stream pipeline right before the explosion.
Scepticism in the story of the "petty group of Ukrainians" still exists in Germany. A prominent German diving expert, Dr. Sven Thomas, questioned the ability of a small group to conduct a large-scale attack earlier this month.
He argued that seabed mines with a destructive power equivalent to 1,260 kg of TNT were needed to carry out explosions of such a scale. He said that placing such devices would require a large ship, not a cruise ship that was said to have been used.
