The Joe Biden government agreed to a Ukrainian plan to attack the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines. The information reached Washington three months before, last September, the sabotage was carried out through underwater explosions that seriously damaged the pipelines. This was published on Tuesday by The Washington Post, citing leaked reports.
The CIA learned of the information last June through a European spy agency. According to the document, a six-person team from Ukrainian special operations forces intended to blow up pipelines installed under the Baltic Sea to transport gas from Russia to Germany, the US capital newspaper reported.
The European intelligence report was shared on the Discord chat platform, purportedly by Air National Guard aviator Jack Teixeira, who was arrested in April and charged in connection with the leak of confidential US documents.
The intelligence report was based, according to the Post, on information obtained from an individual in Ukraine. The document would show that for almost a year the Western allies have had a basis for suspecting Kyiv of being responsible for the sabotage.
But the information, which included specifics about the number of operatives and attack methods, could not be immediately verified. "That assessment - of Ukraine's involvement - only strengthened in recent months, when German police investigators uncovered evidence about the bombing that bears striking similarities to what the European service had indicated Ukraine was planning."
Officials from several countries confirmed that the intelligence summary posted on Discord accurately established what the European service told the CIA. The Post agreed to withhold the name of the European country as well as some aspects of the alleged plan at the request of government officials, who said exposing the information would threaten sources and operations.
Both the CIA and the White House declined to comment on the Washington Post report. Homeland Security spokesman John Kirby evaded several questions from the newspaper itself and from journalists from different media who questioned him at a press conference. The investigation into the attacks on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines, the latter unopened because of the war, "is still open," Kirby said.
