Russian ships seen near Nord Stream pipeline before explosions

Three Russian navy ships were sighted in the Baltic Sea, in the area of ​​Nord Stream pipeline explosions, before the sabotage that interrupted the flow of Russian gas to Europe in September last year.

The navy ships were tracked using satellite imagery and intercepted radio communications from the Russian fleet, broadcasters DR of Denmark, NRK of Norway, SVT of Sweden and Yle of Finland said.

Officials in Denmark, Sweden and Germany said the explosions that ruptured the Nord Stream 1 and newly built Nord Stream 2 pipelines, which link Russia and Germany across the Baltic Sea, were deliberate. However, they have not published any findings from their respective investigations.

Broadcasters learned that in June and September last year, Russian ships departed from navy bases in St Petersburg and Kaliningrad for the area northeast of the Danish island of Bornholm, where three of the pipeline’s four leaks occurred.

One of the vessels, a tug called SB-123, capable of launching mini-submarines, was located in the region on September 21st and 22nd.

Separately, the Danish Armed Forces confirmed to Reuters that a patrol vessel took 26 photos of a Russian rescue submarine called the SS-750 near the Nord Stream explosion site on September 22 last year, just days before the explosions took place.

The incident took place seven months after the start of Russia’s war against Ukraine. On Tuesday (2), the Kremlin denied that Russian ships had any involvement in the sabotage, and asked that the results of the investigations be published.

Moscow, without providing evidence, blamed the explosions on Western sabotage. Both the United States and Ukraine have denied involvement in the attacks, as has Russia.

The Russian ships tracked by the four stations turned off the AIS signal, an automatic tracking system used on the ship. One of the ships in the area was the Russian navy research vessel Sibiryakov, satellite images indicated.