NEW YORK, March 11. /TASS/. Between September 6 and 12, 2022, a Greek-flagged tanker called the Minerva Julie was idling near the site of the September 26 sabotage attack that targeted the Nord Stream pipelines, the Business Insider newspaper reported.

According to the report, the discovery was made by Denmark-based open-source analyst Oliver Alexander.

When contacted by the paper’s journalists, the tanker’s owner said the ship was "awaiting her next voyage instructions" at that point.

The tanker had departed from Rotterdam. After the seven-day pause, it headed to Estonia’s Tallinn first, and then to Russia’s second largest city of St. Petersburg.

According to the report, even if the vessel has no relation to the destruction of the pipelines, its crew may provide valuable information to investigators.

On Tuesday, the New York Times reported, citing US officials, that a "pro-Ukrainian group" that acted without the knowledge of US authorities could have committed the sabotage attack on the gas pipelines. The Zeit newspaper wrote that German investigators had identified a vessel used by the saboteurs. The company that rented it allegedly belonged to Ukrainian citizens and was registered in Poland. The German Office of the Federal Prosecutor told TASS that a vessel reportedly involved in the blasts was searched on January 18 and 20.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called these reports "incoherent babble." He added that attempts to block an objective and unbiased investigation into the affair will not be left unanswered.

On September 27, 2022, Nord Stream AG reported unprecedented damage that occurred the day before on three strings of the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 offshore gas pipelines. On September 26, 2022, Swedish seismologists registered two explosions on the pipeline routes. The Russian Prosecutor General's Office subsequently opened a criminal case based on charges of international terrorism.