UNIED NATIONS, September 29. /TASS/. In its draft UN Security Council presidential statement regarding the sabotage attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines, Russia suggests condemning them as an act of terrorism and underscores the importance of an impartial international investigation into the matter.

The draft statement, obtained by TASS, says that "the Security Council condemns in the strongest terms the act of terrorism against the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines in September 2022." It also says that the main decision-making body of the United Nations "underlines that this act represented a direct threat to international peace and security."

"The Security Council emphasizes the importance of conducting an efficient, impartial, transparent, inclusive and thorough international investigation into all circumstances of the attack," the draft says.

At the same time, the statement also contains a provision, in which ‘the Security Council expresses serious concern over the fact that <…> lack of official information" hinders the prospects of establishing all the facts related to this crime. In this regard, "the Security Council appeals to national authorities of Denmark, Germany and Sweden to accelerate their national investigations," and calls upon them "to cooperate with the national authorities of the Russian Federation and the operator of the pipeline."

Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya said on Tuesday that Russia would soon submit to the UN Security Council a draft presidential statement regarding the Nord Stream sabotage. A presidential statement is a statement made by the president of the Security Council on behalf of the Council, adopted at a formal meeting of the Council and issued as an official document of the Council.

On September 27 last year, Nord Stream AG reported "unprecedented damage" a day earlier on three strings of the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 offshore pipelines. Swedish seismologists had recorded two explosions on the offshore routes of the pipelines on September 26. The Russian Prosecutor General's Office launched criminal proceedings over an act of international terrorism after the gas pipelines were damaged.

On February 8, US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh published an article claiming, citing anonymous sources, that US Navy divers had planted explosive devices under the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines under the cover of the BALTOPS naval exercise in June 2022, and that the Norwegians then activated the bombs three months later. According to the journalist, the decision to conduct the operation was made by US President Joe Biden personally, following nine months of discussions with White House national security advisers.