WASHINGTON, October 1. /TASS/. The US authorities will gather all facts before making a definitive determination about explosions on the Nord Stream pipelines, White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters at a briefing.
"The [US] President was also clear today that there is more work to do on the investigation before the United States government is prepared to make an attribution in this case. One of the practical reasons for that is that because of gases emanating from these pipelines, the Danish authorities and other authorities in the Baltic Sea can't actually get down to the source of the leak, to do forensics on what appears to be an explosion. So we will have to wait until a combination of physical inspection, intelligence gathering and consultation with our allies to make a definitive determination," Sullivan noted.
According to him, "the suggestions Russia has made about the United States and other countries are flat out false."
When asked if there were many countries capable of carrying out such an attack, the White House advisor said: "Not many." "I think this is obviously an act of sabotage that took place, we believe, in the neighborhood of 70 to 80 meters, 230 to 270 feet under the ocean. You know, that takes some degree of sophistication but I don't want to get ahead of myself in terms of asserting how exactly this happened or who exactly did it. Until we're standing on solid ground, we will continue to work with our allies and partners to gather all of the facts and then we will make a determination about where we go from here," Sullivan noted.
On Tuesday, the Nord Stream AG company reported that three threads of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 offshore gas pipelines had suffered unprecedented damage on September 26. Swedish seismologists later reported that two explosions had been recorded along the Nord Stream pipelines. Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed the situation on the West. "Sanctions are not enough for the Anglo-Saxons. They have turned to sabotage, it's unbelievable but true, organizing explosions on the Nord Stream international gas pipelines that run along the bottom of the Baltic Sea, and they actually began to destroy the pan-European energy infrastructure," he noted, adding: "It’s clear to everyone who benefits from this. And the one who benefits from this is the one who did it.".