The News
An attack on the Nord Stream pipelines last year may have been carried out by a pro-Ukrainian group, according to a U.S. intelligence review, The New York Times reported.
The pipelines provided gas from Russia to much of Europe. The attacks have triggered a months-long unsolved mystery about who was responsible.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is not implicated in the attack, nor are other Ukrainian top brass, the intelligence reviewed by U.S. officials notes, but they have provided no conclusive details on the perpetrators or their affiliations, the Times reported.
Know More
White House national security spokesman John Kirby declined to comment on the report, citing ongoing investigations by the governments of Germany, Sweden, and Denmark. “I’m just not going to get ahead of that investigative work,” he told reporters on Tuesday.
While the U.S. intelligence review suggest the attacks may have been carried out by opponents of Russia and President Vladimir Putin, officials did not name any suspected groups.
The report follows months of finger pointing between nations as officials across Europe and North America speculated about who was to blame for the sabotage last September.
Last month, American journalist Seymour Hersh claimed, without clear evidence, in his newsletter, that the U.S. and Norway jointly ordered the attack. Russia has accused the U.K. and the U.S. of the attack, while others have speculated it may have been carried out by Russia itself, following sightings of Russian submarines in the area ahead of the incident.
Western officials have so far avoided assigning blame for the attack to any specific country or group.