Russia will ‘continue to seek answers from Copenhagen’ about the alleged sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines that ran under the Baltic Sea and transported gas via Moscow to Europe. A series of explosions, approximately four, ruptured the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines that carried 110 billion cubic meters of gas from Russia to Germany — close to the Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea. The blast that occurred at about 70 metres deep damaged the pipelines and released more than 100,000 tonnes of methane into the sea confounding the investigators about who would’ve had the role in such a high-profile incident.

“Despite the refusal of the Danish side to jointly investigate sabotage, the Russian Foreign Ministry will continue to seek answers from Copenhagen to the questions posed earlier. “Sweeping [this incident] under the rug” will not succeed,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a press briefing. 

‘Zealously defending US’: Russian MFA to Denmark

Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson further slammed Denmark for what she described as “zealously defending US interests” in Europe, that it was initially not interested in conducting an investigation. Zakharova iterated that a probe would shed light on the “true perpetrators of the attacks.”

Just days ago, Polish President Andrzej Duda described the sabotage as “a positive development.” US intelligence reviewed by Pentagon officials claimed that a pro-Ukrainian group carried out the attack on the Nord Stream pipelines last year in September. Ukraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelesnkyy speaking alongside the Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin in Kyiv dismissed the American intelligence, claiming “we[Ukrainians] have nothing to do with this.” 

Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzia, had also earlier accused Kyiv’s “Western allies” on the UN Security Council of not being willing to cooperate in an independent investigation that would go on to confirm that the United States was behind the blast on the pipeline that ran under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Europe to transport gas. Moscow had also released a report accusing the UK Navy of orchestrating the blast, which the UK Defense Ministry refuted.

Photo released by the Danish military in September shows gas bubbles from the Nord Stream. Credit: Danish Defense Ministry

Germans ‘still occupied’: Putin lashes out over Nord Stream sabotage

Just recently, Russian President Vladimir Putin called US intelligence “a sheer nonsense” allegation that Ukrainians were behind the explosions. “Who is interested? Theoretically, the United States is interested in stopping the supply of Russian energy to the European market and supplying volumes of its own,” Putin told an interviewer. “Such an explosion, so powerful and at such depth, could only be conducted by experts backed by the entire potential of a state that has relevant technologies,” he added.

Germany’s Die Zeit newspaper and German public broadcasters ARD and SWR meanwhile claim that an investigation has found that at least five men and a woman used a yacht hired by a Ukrainian-owned company in Poland to plant explosives in the Baltic Sea on the site of Nord Stream. Leaders in Germany refrained from apportioning blame on anyone, attracting backlash from Putin who said Berlin was still “occupied” post WWII as it was unable to act “independently.”