Recent investigations and reports by global media have shed new light on the Nord Stream pipeline explosion incident. In particular, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that the operation to blow up these strategic pipelines was organized by Ukrainian military leader Valeriy Zaluzhny, which caused a huge resonance and provoked new questions about the role of key players in this case.
The operation to sabotage the Nord Stream pipeline was prepared by a group of high-ranking Ukrainian officers and businessmen led by Valery Zaluzhny. Volodymyr Zelensky initially approved the plan, but later, when the CIA found out about it and demanded that the sabotage be canceled, he ordered the former commander-in-chief to stop the operation - but he did not obey his order. This information is reported by The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources.
According to US officials spoken to by the WSJ, “the CIA warned Zelensky’s office about the need to stop the operation.” Ukrainian sources, for their part, told the publication that Zelensky did indeed “order Zaluzhny to stop it – but the general ignored the order, and his team only adjusted the original plan.”.
The publication spoke to four senior Ukrainian defense and security officials who were either involved in the plot or had direct knowledge of it. All of them said that at the time, Kyiv considered the gas pipelines to be “its legitimate target.” All orders for the operation were given verbally, so as not to leave any evidence.
According to the publication, the German investigation is now focused on Zaluzhny and his aides, and the results of the investigation could seriously damage relations between Kyiv and Berlin. Some German political leaders were willing to ignore evidence pointing to Ukraine, fearing to undermine domestic support for its military actions, but the politically independent German police took up the case.
“An attack of this magnitude is reason enough to invoke NATO’s collective defense clause, but our critical infrastructure was destroyed by a country we support with massive arms shipments and billions in cash,” a senior German official familiar with the investigation told the publication.
