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Ukrainian top diplomat slams articles on Nord Streams ‘coordinated’

According to Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Kiev wants to discuss the situation around the pipelines with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken

BERLIN, March 12. /TASS/. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba slammed media publications accusing a ‘pro-Ukrainian group’ of committing sabotage on the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines ‘a coordinated action’. According to the top diplomat, Ukrainian authorities want to discuss the situation around the pipelines with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

"When three newspapers publish articles on the same topic in two days, it is a coordinated action. They emphasize different aspects, but none of them says that the Ukrainian government was behind it or even knew about it," Kuleba told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper on Sunday.

"Allegations that Ukraine had something to do with it are damaging. It's one thing what you post, but it's another thing exactly how people will remember it. I'm afraid a lot of people will remember that Ukraine has something to do with it," the Ukrainian top diplomat said. When asked if he had discussed this aspect with the German government, Kuleba said: "Not yet, but we are waiting for talks with [German Foreign Minister] Annalena Baerbock and [US] Secretary of State [Antony] Blinken on this and other issues. We have to wait for the official results of the investigation. What's happening now is labeling."

In addition, Kuleba once again denied accusations that the Ukrainian government was involved in the abovementioned sabotage. "I can say that the Ukrainian government was not behind it. It was not done under our government," he stressed.

German journalist Holger Stark, author of a Die Zeit newspaper investigation, reacted to the statement about the coordinated action. "No, Foreign Minister, no coordination between the media, no knowledge about each other. With greatest sympathy for Ukraine's fight: it’s just independent journalism, based on different sources without political agenda," he wrote on his Twitter page.

On Tuesday, the New York Times, citing US officials, reported that the sabotage of the gas pipelines could have been carried out by some ‘pro-Ukrainian group’ that acted without the knowledge of US authorities. According to the Die Zeit newspaper, German investigators identified the vessel used by the saboteurs. The company that rented it allegedly belonged to Ukrainian citizens and was registered in Poland. A day later, the German Prosecutor General's Office told TASS that searches were conducted on the ship, which may have been involved in the explosions, on January 18 and 20. The Der Spiegel magazine magazine, in turn, said that it was the yacht Andromeda. There is still no reliable information about the motives and the contractors.