STOCKHOLM, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) — The Swedish Navy said Wednesday it had deployed two ships to conduct further investigations into the Nord Stream pipeline leaks in the Baltic Sea.
“I can confirm that we are there with two minesweepers,” Jimmie Adamsson, the navy’s chief of communications, told Sweden’s Television on Wednesday, adding that the vessels were deployed “to carry out work and surveys underwater”.
“We felt the need to do further investigations to complete the investigation,” Adamsson said.
He said the investigation was conducted at the initiative of the Navy and was not part of the country’s concurrent criminal investigation.
Adamsson declined to divulge further information except that the purpose of the operation was to meet the needs of the Navy.
The Swedish Navy has previously assisted the criminal investigation by deploying a submarine rescue vessel to investigate one of the sites where the four leaks occurred in the Swedish and Danish exclusive economic zone in the Baltic Sea in September.
The investigation strengthened the suspicion that acts of sabotage were behind the explosions that damaged the two pipelines built to transport natural gas from Russia to Germany.
Russia has demanded that Sweden share the results, but the Swedish authorities have ruled it out, citing pre-trial secrecy.
Denmark and Germany have also launched operations to gather information and potential evidence after the cordons were lifted following the Swedish crime scene investigation.
Source: sn.dk