DISINFO: The objective of Nord Stream media reports is to scapegoat Ukraine
SUMMARY
The German press published the names of the alleged participants in the [Nord Stream] explosion, who are Ukrainian divers. Then the Wall Street Journal published an article stating that Zelenskyy had approved the sabotage plan. Obviously, the point here is not the West’s desire to restore justice. It is noteworthy that the former material was published by German media, and the latter by an American media outlet. There may be several purposes for publishing these two materials, including the desire to divert suspicions of US involvement in the sabotage by making Ukraine a “scapegoat”.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative alleging that the West/US is behind the sabotage explosions on the Nord Stream gas pipelines.
This recurring claim resurfaced in the context of a media investigative report claiming that the German authorities have issued an arrest warrant against a Ukrainian suspect for carrying out the Nord Stream explosion on 26 September 2022.
German news outlets Süddeutsche Zeitung, Die Zeit and the public broadcaster ARD jointly published an investigation on 14 August 2024 claiming that Germany has issued an arrest warrant nearly two years ago against a Ukrainian citizen who is believed to have carried out the Nord Stream explosion in September 2022.
According to the investigative report, the suspect and two other accomplices approached the driver of a German-flagged yacht, which docked in the northern island of Rügen, and directed him to the pipeline's location; two of the three suspects put on diving gears and went underwater.
The yacht driver has reportedly identified the suspect from photos shown to him by the police. According to the report, a white van suspected of being used to transport diving material was caught on a traffic camera in Rügen in September 2022 with a passenger strongly resembling the suspect.
As the suspect is still on the run, it is still unclear who ordered the attack. There is so far no public evidence linking the attack to any state or group, despite the baseless insistence of pro-Kremlin outlets that the attack was carried out by foreign governments.
Additionally, pro-Kremlin outlets have made numerous claims in the past contradicting the recent findings that it now promotes, such as that the American and Norwegian divers blew up Nord Stream and that British navy specialists were involved in implementing the attacks against the pipelines.
See similar cases that Washington scapegoats Kyiv for Nord Stream explosion to restore relations with Germany, Nord Stream pipelines were blown up by US intelligence, that the US benefits from the destroying of Nord Stream because it can now sell more liquefied natural gas to Europe; that the US blew up Nord Stream so that the EU would arm Ukraine, and that Nord Stream destruction was