Sweden confirms sabotage caused Nord Stream leaks

During his meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, the first meeting of the leaders of Asia’s two largest economies in

three years

ASTOCKHOLM: A Swedish investigation into ruptures of the subsea Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines has detected residue of explosives and concluded that “grievous sabotage” caused the breakage.

The pipeline, which crosses the Baltic Sea to Germany from Russia, has been the focus of a probe by authorities in a number of countries after leaks were discovered Swedish and Danish exclusive economic areas at the end of September.

The investigation in Sweden will continue with the intent to see “if anyone can be suspected and later charged,” according to a statement from the country’s security service on Friday.

In a separate statement, Swedish

prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist said that “the analysis showed residue of explosives on several of the foreign objects that were found”. He added the site in question “has been thoroughly documented”.

The latest information from the Swedish investigation confirms Russia’s earlier statements “that it was a sabotage or a terrorist attack,” the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday, adding that “it is important to go on and find whoever is behind the explosion.” Russia will assess viability of repairing Nord Stream after the final estimates of the damage are available, Peskov said.

The pipeline is controlled by Russia’s Gazprom PJSC. Operator Nord Stream AG has surveyed the damage, detecting craters on the seabed and sections of the pipe destroyed.

Russia keeps up barrage, hits Ukraine energy infra Russian forces kept up a barrage of shell and missile attacks on various regions of Ukraine, many hitting power infrastructure, while heavy fighting persisted in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions in the east of the country.

With the capital Kyiv seeing its first snow flurries of the winter, authorities said they were working to restore power nationwide after Russia earlier this week unleashed what Ukraine said was the heaviest bombardment of civilian infrastructure of the nine-month-old war.

About 10 million people are without power, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a Thursday evening video address, in a country with a pre-war population of about 44 million.