MOSCOW, August 15. /TASS/. Ukraine could not have been behind the sabotage of the Nord Stream and Nord Stream-2 gas pipelines because it does not have the necessary technical and financial capabilities, presidential adviser Mikhail Podolyak said.
"Such an act can only be carried out with extensive technical and financial resources," Podolyak told Reuters, explaining why Ukraine could not have been behind the attack.
Earlier, the Wall Street Journal newspaper quoted sources as saying that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, whose term of office expired in May, approved a plan to sabotage the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines, but tried to reverse his decision after the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) learned about it. According to the newspaper, at the request of the CIA, the Ukrainian leader announced the cancellation of the operation, but former top Ukrainian military commander Valery Zaluzhny not only ignored this demand, but also changed the original plan, in particular, involving Roman Chervinsky, an ex-officer of Ukraine’s main security and intelligence service, in organizing the attack. Later, the Wall Street Journal reported that Zaluzhny claimed that he was not involved in the Nord Stream sabotage.
Earlier, the Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported, citing a joint investigation by the ARD TV channel and the Die Zeit newspaper, that German prosecutors had issued an arrest warrant for a Ukrainian diving instructor suspected of having played a role in sabotaging the Nord Stream gas pipelines. According to the newspaper, he had recently been living in Poland, having gone into hiding. The German prosecutor's office, the newspaper said, suspects two other Ukrainian diving instructors of involvement in the Nord Streams sabotage, among them there is a woman. It is believed that all three may have been part of the Andromeda yacht crew, which is the focus of the German investigation. The vessel may have been used to deliver explosives to the pipelines.