Alwaght- The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) reportedly has warned allies in the EU about a potential attack by a pro-Ukrainian group on the Nord Stream gas pipelines.
Citing intelligence officials, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that around June and July of last year, the CIA informed Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service (BND) and other European agencies that three Ukrainian nationals were attempting to acquire ships in states around the Baltic Sea, including Sweden, to target the pipelines.
Russia has rejected such reports, saying it is an attempt to divert attention from the real perpetrators and absolve the United States.
A month after the destruction of Nord Stream pipelines in September last year, CIA Director William Burns and the White House’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, were said to have been considering the possibility that Ukraine had orchestrated the sabotage of the pipelines built to deliver Russian gas to Germany.
The report came amid a war of words between the US and Russia over the destruction of Nord Stream pipelines.
Moscow has said the United States should try to prove it was not behind the destruction of the Nord Stream gas pipelines that connected Russia to Western Europe.
Russia has said it considers the destruction of Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines "an act of international terrorism" and will not allow it to be swept under the rug.
In an exclusive report on Tuesday, the New York Times said US officials had evidence that suggested a "pro-Ukrainian group" had bombed the Nord Stream gas pipelines, without identifying the source of the intelligence and the suspected group involved.
The report said the officials had no evidence implicating Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the sabotage, even though the bombing benefited Kiev by severely impacting Russia's revenue from the sale of natural gas to Western Europe.
According to the report, the intelligence suggested the culprits behind the sabotage were "opponents of President Vladimir Putin of Russia," which launched a war on Ukraine on February 22 last year.
German news organizations reported this week that investigators were looking at a yacht operated by a Polish-based company that was “apparently” owned by two Ukrainians, in a possible connection with the sabotage.
Last month, American journalist Seymour Hersh said the bombing of the pipelines had been directly ordered by US President Joe Biden and carried out by the CIA with the help of the US Navy.
The White House and the CIA rejected the report and tried to blame the attack on certain groups in Ukraine.
Russian government spokesman Dmitry Peskov suggested on Wednesday that the reports about a Ukrainian link were an attempt to divert attention from the real perpetrators and absolve NATO countries.
“Obviously, this is a coordinated media hoax campaign,” Peskov said.
The US and NATO had called the September incident an act of sabotage. Moscow has blamed the West and argued that it is not really interested in a comprehensive international investigation of the incident.
