Germany searches vessel linked to pipeline attack

German prosecutors confirmed they have searched a ship suspected to have been used in the pipeline bombing.

US officials have seen new intelligence that indicates a ‘pro-Ukrainian group’ was responsible for the sabotage last year of the Nord Stream gas pipelines.

German prosecutors say they have searched a vessel suspected to have been used in the bombing of the Nord Stream gas pipelines last September after reports that a small “pro-Ukrainian” cell was behind the sabotage.

A joint investigation by three media outlets claims that officials believe the explosives were placed by two specialist divers on the floor of the Baltic sea.

The vessel is alleged to have been chartered by a Polish-registered company that belongs to two Ukrainians.

The office of the federal attorney-general, Germany’s most senior prosecutor, confirmed that it suspected a German ship belonging to a Polish company played a role in laying the explosives. It told ARD, a national public broadcaster, that it identified and searched the ship in January.

It said staff at the yacht charter company were not suspected of being involved in the attack. The prosecutors said they were still investigating the suspects and gave no further details.

A Ukrainian official told The Times they were investigating the possible involvement of a top Ukrainian businessman. A Kyiv representative of the businessman, who is known to The Times, declined to confirm or deny his involvement when asked.

The Nord Stream pipeline supplies Germany with most of its Russian gas.

The blasts on September 26 cut off the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, laid from Russia to Germany at a cost of about £15 billion.

No one claimed responsibility at the time but Poland and Ukraine suggested that Russia was behind the attack. Two separate reports in the American and German press have suggested it was the work of a private group opposed to the Putin regime but acting independently of the Ukrainian government.

German news outlets, including the newspaper Die Zeit, said western investigators believed a team of six - two divers, two assistants, a captain and a doctor - boarded the yacht at the port of Rostock, almost 150 miles north of Berlin, on September 6.

The crew members are alleged to have used forged passports, making their true nationalities difficult to trace.

The Ukrainian government has denied having anything to do with the destruction of the pipelines. German officials have urged the public to wait for the results of the investigations.

Boris Pistorius, the German defence minister, told a radio interviewer: “It may just as well have been a false flag operation staged to blame Ukraine.”

There is confusion, however, about how much the German government knew about the developments.

Der Spiegel reported yesterday (Tuesday) that the intelligence services had told Olaf Scholz, the chancellor, they had “no new information” on the incident.

The New York Times reported that the intelligence agencies had not found evidence the attack was carried out on behalf of the Ukrainian government.

Ukraine has been opposed to the Nord Stream project for years. Russia in Global Affairs, a journal close to the Kremlin, mocked the vagueness of the claim that “a pro-Ukrainian group” bombed the pipelines.

The Times