US Navy ships have been operating near Nord Stream shortly before the explosion paralyzed gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea, the Danish newspaper Politiken reported, citing a local port manager. The newspaper added that the ship's transponder - used for loc locating ships for safety purposes - was turned off.
Three of the four branches of the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines - built to supply Russian gas to Germany and the rest of Europe - were ruptured by underwater explosions in September 2022. Since then, the pipelines have not been put into operation.
Politiken's article was published on September 26 but received little attention. However, it reappeared on the X network on October 7 this week, with statements re-posted by American journalist Glenn Greenwald and other prominent journalists.
According to the report, US warships were operating in the area east of Denmark's Bornholm island in the days before the explosion with their transponders turned off. Suspecting the ship was in distress, a manager at the nearby Danish port of Christiano, Mr. John Anker Nielsen, deployed the rescue mission.
However, when they arrived at the scene, they found that the ships mentioned were US Navy ships. The Navy Command then asked Nielsen and his colleagues to return.
Nielsen told Politiken that he decided to share details of the events taking place in September 2022, despite initially being "not allowed to say".
Politiken wrote that Nielsen did not believe Western media claims that Nord Stream had been sabotaged by Ukraine. According to Western media, a small group of Ukrainians were said to have used the Andromeda yacht to carry out the sophisticated attack.
Instead, Nielsen believes in the article by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh.
In early February 2023, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh wrote that the White House had ordered the destruction of Nord Stream.
According to a reliable source who spoke to the journalist, the explosives detonated on September 26, 2022 were planted by US Navy divers in the Nord Stream pipeline since June 2022 under the cover of a NATO exercise called Baltops 22.
The White House denied the accusation, calling it "completely untrue and fictional".
Senior Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, have criticized the US and accused Washington of being the possible culprit behind the Nord Stream explosion.
Russia argues that Washington has the technical means to carry out the operation and will benefit the most, as the attack disrupts Russian gas supplies to the EU and forces the European Union to switch to more expensive US liquefied natural gas (LNG).
TASS quoted Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying on October 9 that Russia has evidence of the involvement of the US and UK in the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipeline. And the release of the above evidence will depend on the development of the situation.
Director of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Sergey Naryshkin also stated that the US and UK were directly involved in the Nord Stream sabotage. He accused professional saboteurs from Anglo-Saxon intelligence agencies of being involved in the organization, preparation and implementation of the Nord Stream explosion.
