New details 'expose' the culprit, what do the US and UK say, has the United Nations 'come out'?

Two years after the Nord Stream pipeline explosion (September 2022), the Security Council met at the request of the Russian Federation, with Moscow criticizing the lack of conclusive findings in national investigations into the incident and the lack of collective action by the 15-member body.

A sign indicates the way to the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in Lubmin, Germany. (Source: Reuters)

After a period of unusual silence, in recent days - marking the 2-year mark of "sleep", the Nord Stream pipeline explosion has been "heated up" again in the international media, with new details.

Are the US and UK involved?

On October 9, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova suddenly announced that Moscow has evidence of US and UK involvement in the Nord Stream pipeline explosion in 2022.

Stressing that Moscow has repeatedly offered to cooperate with the parties involved in the investigation, but has not received a response, “Russia will present evidence based on the most realistic facts and closely follow the developments surrounding the investigation into the incident,” Zakharova noted.

Previously, the head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service Sergei Naryshkin affirmed that the US and UK were directly involved in the Nord Stream explosion.

In September 2022, three of the four branches of the two Nord Stream pipelines (1 and 2) that carry natural gas from Russia to Europe were ruptured in a series of explosions under the Baltic Sea near Sweden and Denmark. The vital gas pipelines have since been out of service. Sweden, Denmark and Germany have called the incident a deliberate act of sabotage.

Subsequent independent investigations, initiated by Germany, Denmark and Sweden, excluded Russia as a culprit, but did not produce any concrete results. In 2024, both Sweden and Denmark, except Germany, announced the end of their investigation into the Nord Stream pipeline explosion.

In that development, adding new details related to the suspected perpetrator of Nord Stream sabotage, the Danish newspaper Politiken published on September 26 and posted by social network user X on October 7 reported that US warships were operating in the area east of Bornholm Island (Denmark) a few days before the explosion with their transponders turned off.

Believing that the ship was in distress, a manager at the nearby Christiano (Denmark) port, Mr. John Anker Nielsen and his colleagues deployed a rescue mission. However, when they arrived at the scene, they saw a US Navy ship.

Sharing with Politiken, Mr. Nielsen said he did not believe the Western media's claim that US intelligence reports that - the Nord Stream sabotage was related to Kiev - that a small group of Ukrainians were believed to have used the Andromeda yacht to carry out the deep-sea attack.

But Mr. Anker Nielsen believes in the related content provided by the famous American journalist, Pulitzer Prize winner - Seymour Hersh, whose article caused a stir in early February 2023 - affirming that the US had intended to sabotage Nord Stream since late 2021. According to information from this 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 immediately denied the accusation, calling the information "completely false and fictional".

At that time, President Putin and senior Russian officials accused Washington of being the possible culprit behind the Nord Stream explosion. Moscow believed that the US had the most technical means to carry out these explosions and would also be the biggest beneficiary.

United Nations involvement?

On October 4, a United Nations (UN) press release said that at the Security Council meeting on the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage, many speakers condemned attacks on critical infrastructure, emphasizing the need for accountability.

“Stockholm and Copenhagen have made it clear that the gas pipelines have exploded” and “it is impossible to continue criminal proceedings within the jurisdiction of their countries,” the representative of the Russian Federation said, referring to the investigations by Sweden and Denmark, which were declared completed in February 2024 but did not publish any specific results.

Russia's representative to the UN expressed disappointment and said that Moscow's requests for legal assistance, as a victim, to all three countries conducting independent investigations had been ignored. Likewise, Moscow's efforts to reach a Council agreement calling on Germany to be transparent and speed up the investigation "have been consistently blocked by the United States and its allies."

The Russian representative to the UN continued to criticize the "obstructive moves" of the Council by its Western "colleagues". And affirmed that the Russian Federation will not be discouraged in establishing the truth, identifying who is responsible for the explosions and punishing them.

Meanwhile, a US spokesman rejected the Russian Federation's accusation that Washington was involved, stressing: "There is no evidence of US involvement and there never will be, because the US is not involved."

The UK representative stressed that the best way to get answers was to support Germany's ongoing national investigation. The Council should focus its efforts on supporting this process rather than engaging in useless speculation.

Calling for a transparent and conclusive investigation, the Mozambique delegate noted that progress on the Nord Stream pipeline explosion case “like other investigations” has largely stalled over the past two years. He expressed concern about how national jurisdictions are handling the matter, as well as reports of a lack of coordination and information sharing. As a result, there is “speculation that the investigation is being deliberately prolonged and there is a risk of escalation if the identity of the perpetrators is revealed”.

The Chinese representative echoed the above views and called on relevant countries to actively communicate and cooperate with the Russian Federation, and avoid politicizing the investigation.

The Chinese side said that the draft statement proposed by the Russian delegation on the Nord Stream pipeline explosion was "generally balanced" and reflected the concerns of all parties, and expressed hope that relevant parties would strengthen consultations to achieve results as soon as possible. Beijing also called on the UN Security Council to continue paying attention to the issue and not let it "disappear."

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/vu-no-duong-ong-nord-stream-them-tinh-tiet-moi-vach-mat-thu-pham-my-anh-noi-gi-lien-hop-quoc-da-ra-mat-289693.html