A report from the Washington Post says that the Ukrainian military left President Zelenskyy in the dark about the operation.
The Kremlin has expressed “fear” over a report that senior Ukrainian military officials, acting without the knowledge of its president, coordinated an attack on Russia’s Nord Stream gas pipeline last year.
A spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that the report, published by the Washington Post, is further evidence of Ukraine’s involvement in the attack and said he should be concerned. the West also about the claim that the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy was not aware of the operation. .
Published by the Post after a joint investigation by German news magazine Der Spiegel, the report named the head of Ukrainian special forces as the coordinator of the September 2022 explosions that damaged the multibillion-dollar gas pipeline network. Russia under the Baltic Sea, disrupting exports to Europe.
The attacks have long been a source of controversy, sparking competing allegations of involvement by the West, Ukraine and Russia. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Post, citing people familiar with the work, said the lead orchestra was Roman Chervinsky. Chervinsky, a high-ranking military officer with extensive intelligence connections, responded to a chain of command that went up to Ukraine’s top military commander, General Valery Zaluzhnyi, the report said.
Zelenskyy was deliberately left in the dark about the operation, the newspaper said, suggesting that other covert operations against Russian forces have also taken place without the president’s approval.
A spokesman for Ukraine’s military told the Reuters news agency on Sunday that he had “no information” about the report.
Chervinsky said in a statement issued through his lawyer that he was not involved in the operation. “All speculations about involvement in the attack on Nord Stream are being spread by Russian propaganda without any basis,” he said.
The Kremlin is reacting
The Kremlin, however, said the report is evidence of Ukraine’s involvement.
“The signs of Ukraine in this sabotage, this act of terrorism, are appearing more and more in reports, studies and media reports,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
“He says that President Zelenskyy may not have been aware of these actions by his subordinates from the security agencies. This is an alarming sign not only for us but also for the Western countries together,” Peskov said.
“If the Kyiv regime is not in control of the situation in its own country, this is alarming and should also be taken into account.”
Russia had previously accused the West, particularly the United States and Great Britain, of being involved in the Nord Stream explosion without providing evidence.
Some US and European officials had initially suggested, also without evidence, that Russia had blown up its own pipelines, a claim dismissed as ludicrous by Putin.
Nord Stream’s second pipeline had been completed shortly before the explosion. The network allowed Russia to bring its gas into Europe by bypassing the previous main line, which runs through the Ukraine. State gas company Gazprom owns 51 percent of the pipeline along with Western energy companies that have poured billions of dollars into the project.
