Dr. Sven Thomas - a prominent German diving expert - told German newspaper Bild that large-scale explosions such as the Nord Stream explosion require heavy equipment, including a large ship with a crane loader.
Information in Western media about a small group of Ukrainian divers behind the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipeline in September 2022 is unbelievable - Dr. Sven Thomas told Bild over the weekend.
The damage to the Russian pipelines shows that much more powerful explosives and a much larger ship were used to disable them, Dr Thomas said, adding that the small yacht that the Western press was referring to was not enough.
The US and German media have repeatedly claimed that the Nord Stream explosions involved a small group of Ukrainian crew members who rented an entertainment yacht called Andromeda at a German port and departed with only diving equipment, satellite positioning and an open-source map. The operation was reportedly given the green light by then-Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Valery Zaluzhny.
Many media reported in August that German authorities had issued an international arrest warrant for a suspect in the case - a Ukrainian diver identified as Volodymyr Z.
However, according to Dr. Sven Thomas, head of a state rescue service in Halle, Germany, there must be at least one more group that caused the large explosions.
Thomas, a professional diving team leader and underwater archaeologist, said he was "extremely skeptical" about the entire story of the incident involving just a 15-meter-long crew of six Ukrainians using a 15 meter-long resort yacht.
Thomas said that divers working at a depth of just 34 meters in a lake will need at least four anchorages linked to a ship to keep their equipment stable. But the Andromeda had just one 25kg anchor and a 100-meter chain, while the crew were believed to have sunk to a depth of 80 to 90 meters. Thomas, who has been diving for years, said that was "impossible".
The total weight of the equipment needed for such an operation would be around four tonnes, the expert said, adding that seismic records of the explosions showed that at least 400 kg of TNT had been used to destroy the pipelines.
"They couldn't have dropped such bombs into the water without a crane and counterweights, otherwise the ship would have capsized," Thomas said. According to him, the fact that the pipelines were "crushed like a can of tin" shows that the damage was caused by nearby powerful explosions, not by small bombs placed directly in the pipelines.
Thomas believes this points to seabed mines with a destructive power equivalent to about 1,260 kg of TNT. Such mines could only be placed by a large ship with a crane on board, the expert told Bild.
Andromeda could have been the cause of only one of the four explosions, possibly caused by a small bomb placed directly on one of the pipelines, he added.
Russian President Vladimir Putin also maintained that the explosions were carried out by professionals supported by "the full power of the state with certain technologies".
