The images and video show evidence of what Danish police say were “powerful explosions”
Swedish newspaper Expressen released the first underwater images of the broken gas pipeline Nord Stream 1 on Tuesday. The Russia-Germany gas pipeline was seriously damaged in an apparent act of sabotage last month.
The video footage, taken 80 meters below the surface of the Baltic Sea, shows long tears in the seabed leading up to the ruptured pipe. At least 50 meters of the concrete-reinforced steel pipe is missing, writes the Swedish newspaper reported.
The Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines – which were built to deliver Russian natural gas directly to Germany – suddenly lost pressure on September 26, following a series of underwater explosions off the Danish island of Bornholm, within the economic zones of Denmark and Sweden.
Germany, Denmark and Sweden are conducting separate investigations into the blasts, with a preliminary report from Copenhagen police on Tuesday saying that “powerful explosions” caused the damage. Swedish investigators reached a similar conclusion earlier this month and blamed the blasts “gross sabotage”.
All three nations have barred Russia from participating in their investigations, and Sweden has gone a step further, refusing to share its findings with anyone because of “national security” implications. Stockholm also rejected a joint investigation with Denmark and Germany.
While some Western media and analysts have blamed the pipeline attacks on Russia, Moscow has dismissed this theory as “stupid.” The Nord Stream lines represented both an important source of revenue for Russia and a powerful bargaining chip with Europe, where Moscow says only the United States benefits from their destruction.
“Everyone understands who is behind this and who is the recipient,” Russian President Vladimir Putin stated last week that with the gas pipelines unusable, “you can now force the liquefied natural gas from the USA on to European countries on a much larger scale.”
Russia considers the Nord Stream explosions to be a “terrorist act”, with State Department spokeswoman Maria Zakharova calling for an international investigation. Zakharova noted that NATO conducted military exercises involving underwater drones near Bornholm this summer, likely referring to the alliance’s BALTOPS 2022 exercises, which were held in July.
Source: sn.dk