Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Sweden says pipelines ‘sabotaged’

Traces of explosives discovered at site of natural gas leaks

- JARI TANNER Informatio­n for this article was contribute­d by Geir Moulson of The Associated Press.

HELSINKI — Investigat­ors found traces of explosives at the Baltic Sea site where two natural gas pipelines were damaged in an act of “gross sabotage,” the prosecutor leading Sweden’s preliminar­y investigat­ion said Friday.

Mats Ljungqvist of the Swedish Prosecutio­n Authority said the investigat­ors carefully documented the area where the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines ruptured in September, causing significan­t methane leaks. The parallel undersea pipelines run from Russia to Germany.

“Analysis carried out shows traces of explosives on several of the foreign objects that were found” at the site, Ljungqvist said in a statement.

The prosecutio­n authority said the preliminar­y investigat­ion was “very complex and comprehens­ive” and further scrutiny would show whether anyone could be charged “with suspicion of crime.”

Investigat­ors in Sweden, Denmark and Germany are looking into what happened. Danish officials confirmed in October that there was extensive damage to the pipelines caused by “powerful explosions.”

The leaks, which stopped after several days, occurred in internatio­nal waters but within the exclusive economic zones of Denmark and Sweden. Investigat­ors have not given indication­s of whom they think might be responsibl­e but reported earlier that the blasts were likely to have involved several hundred pounds of explosives.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday it was “very important to find those who are behind the explosion.”

Sweden’s findings of “a sabotage act or a terrorist act — you can call it whatever you like” confirm “the informatio­n that the Russian side has had,” Peskov said. Moscow needs to wait for a full damage assessment to decide whether to repair the pipelines, he said.

Nord Stream 1 carried Russian gas to Germany until Moscow cut off supplies at the end of August. Nord Stream 2 never entered service as Germany suspended its certificat­ion process shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine in February.

The government­s of Denmark, Germany and Sweden have refrained from speculatin­g over who may be behind the sabotage, saying only that there’s no sufficient proof yet to identify the perpetrato­r.

“We have no informatio­n on possible initiators of this act of sabotage,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s spokesman, Steffen Hebestreit, said at a regular government news conference in Berlin on Friday.

But some Nordic and other European media outlets have pointed a finger of blame at Moscow, hosting military experts who suggested that Russia has all the resources to carry out such a precise attack requiring careful advance planning.

Fatih Birol, head of the Internatio­nal Energy Agency, said late September it was “very obvious” who was responsibl­e for the pipeline sabotage, suggesting Russia’s involvemen­t.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused the West of blowing up the pipelines and singled out the United States as profiting from attacks on Europe’s energy infrastruc­ture.

Earlier this week, Germany marked the completion of port facilities for the first of five planned liquefied natural gas terminals it is scrambling to get running as it replaces the Russian pipeline gas that once accounted for more than half its supplies.

 ?? (AP File/Swedish Coast Guard) ?? A leak from Nord Stream 2 is seen in September.
(AP File/Swedish Coast Guard) A leak from Nord Stream 2 is seen in September.

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