Former Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Valery Zaluzhny was reportedly so "impressed" by the plan to sabotage Nord Stream that he wanted to "expand" the operation, German newspaper Der Spiegel reported on November 20.
According to Der Spiegel, former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny approved a plan to blow up Russia's TurkStream gas pipeline in the Black Sea. The sabotage was supposed to take place simultaneously with the attack on the Nord Stream gas pipeline, but it failed, the newspaper said.
Earlier, Der Spiegel reported that General Zaluzhny approved the attack on Nord Stream in September 2022. Since then, Western media have repeatedly claimed that a small group of Ukrainian divers were behind the sabotage.
According to Der Spiegel, a group of US-trained Ukrainian intelligence officers – who have “longstanding ties to the CIA” – developed the initial plan to attack Nord Stream and presented it to Zaluzhny.
The general was said to have "liked the 'Diameter' plan so much that he even wanted to expand it".
Zaluzhny is said to want to target Russia's TurkStream gas pipeline in the Black Sea, the German magazine said, citing sources believed to be involved in the planning.
The TurkStream gas pipeline runs from Russia to Türkiye across the Black Sea, then continues to the Greek border and supplies Russian gas to several other European Union (EU) countries. Last month, Hungary said it had imported a record volume of gas this year via the pipeline.
Der Spiegel did not reveal why the Black Sea plan failed, adding only that Kiev's agents were "focused on Nord Stream".
On November 20, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, commenting on Der Spiegel's article that Moscow knew about Kiev's plan to attack the TurkStream pipeline.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously spoken repeatedly about Ukraine's attempts to attack both this pipeline and Blue Stream - another Russian gas pipeline running under the Black Sea to Türkiye.
“Yes, that is what President Putin is saying,” Mr Peskov replied when asked to comment on the article.
In September 2023, President Putin announced at a press conference that ships protecting the Russian natural gas pipeline to Türkiye were repeatedly attacked by unmanned submarines launched from Ukrainian Black Sea ports.
However, Mr Peskov clarified that President Putin was only talking about attacks on ships, not the pipelines themselves.
In September, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also said, "there is information that there are attempts to destroy pipelines in the Black Sea in the same way Nord Stream was destroyed."
Mr. Lavrov pointed out that Russia had to deploy naval patrols to those areas and their ships also faced attack attempts by Ukrainian forces, all of which were successfully repelled.
