Gas has been leaking from the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines since Monday. The suspicion of sabotage quickly arises. Denmark confirms the assumption and commits itself: the gas leaks were intentional, not an accident.
According to the Danish government, the leaks on the Baltic Sea pipelines Nord Stream 1 and 2 from Russia to Germany are due to “deliberate actions”. The authorities’ clear opinion is that it was not an accident, said Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, without commenting on possible causes. Danish Energy and Climate Minister Dan Jörgensen said at a press conference that the holes through which the gas is escaping are “too big” to have an accidental cause.
Although the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines are currently not in operation, they are filled with gas. Copenhagen assumes that it will take “at least a week” for the methane escaping from the pipes to be used up, Jörgensen said.
In Poland and Sweden, too, an attack on the European gas infrastructure is considered to be the cause of the unprecedented damage to both pipelines. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said, “We don’t yet know the details of what happened, but we can clearly see that there was an act of sabotage.” From the point of view of German security circles, too, there is much to be said for sabotage.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also assumes that the leaks in the Nord Stream pipelines were probably caused by sabotage. She spoke to the Danish Prime Minister Frederiksen about it, writes von der Leyen on Twitter. It is of the utmost importance to investigate the incidents now in order to have full clarity on what happened and why. Any intentional disruption of active European energy infrastructure is unacceptable and will result in the “strongest response”.
Since Monday, gas has been leaking from the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines from Russia to Germany at three points near Bornholm. The Danish Navy released images showing large-scale formation of bubbles on the sea surface.
There was initially no official information on a possible cause of the leaks. Western states blamed Russia for the leaks. For its part, the government in Moscow was “extremely concerned” about the reported leaks.
