Poland likely involved in Nord Stream pipeline explosions – former German intelligence chief — RT World News

Poland is likely involved in the underwater explosions that caused the Nord Stream undersea gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea to rupture in September 2022, the former head of Germany’s foreign intelligence agency has claimed. August Hanning also claimed that Warsaw intentionally obstructed Berlin’s investigation into the incident.

No one has yet claimed responsibility for the explosions, which cut off Russian gas supplies to Germany via Nord Stream 1 and damaged the parallel Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which never went into operation due to bureaucratic setbacks by the EU.

In an interview with the daily Die Welt on Thursday, Hanning said: “It seems that it was a Ukrainian team that, according to the investigation’s findings, was operating there.” However, he added: “This was of course only possible with the support of the earth.”

“When you look at the map… it’s pretty obvious that Polish agencies were involved here, and I think it’s not just agencies… I think it was an arrangement between (people) at the highest level in Ukraine and Poland,” the former intelligence chief speculated.

He claimed that Warsaw could have provided logistical support to the alleged Ukrainian saboteurs.

According to Hanning, “These are decisions that were taken at the highest political level. And I think there was an arrangement between (Ukrainian) President (Vladimir) Zelensky and (Polish) President (Andrzej) Duda to carry out this attack.”

He claimed that Polish authorities had allowed one of the suspects to leave the country even though Germany had already contacted Warsaw to ask for help in his capture.

Warsaw “This did not really help the investigation. On the contrary, crucial findings were withheld, as I have heard in investigative circles,” Hanning told Die Welt.

“In short, Poland had no interest in the investigation being successful, and this is of course due to the fact that Poland was massively involved in the preparation of this attack,” the former senior intelligence official said.

He concluded that such attacks do not occur without massive state involvement, going so far as to say that “The Polish and… Ukrainian military played an important role, as did the intelligence services.”

On Wednesday, German public broadcaster ARD, as well as newspapers Süddeutsche Zeitung and Die Zeit, reported that Poland, despite EU interstate regulations, had not responded to Berlin’s request for cooperation after Federal Prosecutor Jens Rommel issued an arrest warrant in June for a Ukrainian national identified as “Vladimir Z”The suspect is believed to be a diving instructor who lived in Poland and who is believed to have placed the explosive devices on the pipeline.

Polish prosecutors confirmed they had received the arrest warrant, but argued the man had not been arrested because he had left the country by crossing the Polish-Ukrainian border, Reuters reported.

kyiv officials have publicly denied any involvement in the destruction of the pipelines.