New Video Taken by Underwater Drone Shows Blown Up Nord Stream Pipelines

In September 2022, explosions targeted the Nord Stream pipelines, a crucial gas transportation system linking Russia and Germany beneath the Baltic Sea. The sabotage, lambasted by Moscow as an act of international terrorism, remains under investigation by Denmark, Germany, and Sweden, as well as separately by Russia.

German channel RTL has released new footage of the damaged Nord Stream pipelines taken from an underwater drone.

The German TV channel suggests that Nord Stream 2 was blown up using a relatively small explosive device.

The media report points to the second pipeline having suffered much less from the sabotage than the massive destruction inflicted upon Nord Stream 1. Nord Stream 2, judging by the drone footage, was relatively neatly broken in just one place.

The Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines - built to deliver gas under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany - were hit by targeted blasts last September and left partially dysfunctional. The incident remains under investigation by Denmark, Germany, and Sweden, who have excluded Russia from their joint probe. Moscow, which has initiated its own investigation, cited the charge of international terrorism.

Official investigation results are still pending, but Pulitzer Prize-winning US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh published a report in February 2023, alleging that the United States, with the assistance of Norway, orchestrated the blasts, with US Navy divers ostensibly planting remote-controlled explosives under the disguise of the then-ongoing NATO BALTOPS exercises.

Washington has vehemently denied any involvement in the attack. Instead, it fueled the narrative in the mainstream Western press that Russia itself was to blame - claims slammed as laughable by the Kremlin. Russia earlier proposed a resolution at the UN Security Council calling for the launch of an independent investigation; however, the measure was rejected by the body.

Other recent reports detailed that several European intelligence agencies were aware of Ukraine's intent to destroy the Nord Stream pipelines, and that the US had been made equally aware of the development. There have also been versions pushed in the media about "self-organized Ukrainians allegedly not even directly related to [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky's regime" being the perpetrators.

The issue of an investigation of the sabotage on the Nord Stream pipeline is not closed, and Russia will return to it, "in a suitable form and at a convenient time if the situation does not change," Russian First Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Dmitriy Polyansky said earlier in June. He added that the US and its allies have yet to provide convincing evidence and facts establishing their non-involvement in the sabotage.

As for the spate of new "leaks" related to the Nord Stream sabotage, Moscow considers them to potentially be deliberate attempts to divert attention from those really involved in the attack, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. As Russia is still not allowed to participate in the investigation into the blasts, Moscow will continue to insist on a transparent and inclusive probe.