NEW YORK, February 16. /TASS/. The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) delivered a decompression chamber to a Norwegian ship during the BALTOPS exercise, so that the divers could plant charges on Nord Stream pipelines, US reporter Seymour Hersh said in an interview for the democracynow.org website.

"The ship had a decompression chamber that had been flown in by the CIA. […] The divers had to go down 260 feet," Hersh said. He noted that the gas pipes are "steel covered, but they’re also covered by concrete shields, so it’s a serious job to blow them up."

The journalist pointed out that the Norwegian ship that the compression chamber was installed on is a "submarine hunter," calling Norway’s denial of involvement in the operation a "stupid lie."

On February 8, US journalist Seymour Hersh, who specializes in investigative journalism, stated in his article, citing a source, that the Nord Stream pipelines were bombed using explosive devices planted by US Navy divers in June 2022 under the guise of the BALTOPS exercise, with support from Norwegian specialists. According to Hersh, the operation was authorized by US President Joe Biden personally, following nine months of discussions with White House security specialists.

White House National Security Council Spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said in a commentary for TASS that Hersh’s version is "utterly false and total fiction".