PARIS, August 18. /TASS/. The European Union must stop any assistance to Ukraine if its involvement in the blasts at the Nord Stream gas pipelines is proved, the leader of the French party The Patriots, Florian Philippot, told TASS.
"If it turns out that Ukraine s responsible for these blasts, it should be interpreted as an act of aggression against us, which will call in question the issue of entire cooperation with that country, let alone financial and military support for it," he said.
He slammed "the prudish silence of the French authorities and the European Union’s leadership about the act of sabotage at Nord Streams."
He also noted that a theory that the act of sabotage at the gas pipelines had been committed by a group of six Ukrainians without any external support "looks improbable."
The Sueddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) newspaper reported earlier, citing a joint probe with ARD television and the weekly Die Zeit, that German federal prosecutors had issued an arrest warrant for a Ukrainian diving instructor suspected of having played a role in sabotaging the Nord Stream gas pipelines. While the suspect’s last known whereabouts were in Poland, he has reportedly disappeared.
German prosecutors are also investigating two other Ukrainian diving instructors, including a woman, the SZ newspaper said. Together, the three are suspected to have formed the crew of the yacht Andromeda at the center of the German investigation. The vessel might have been used for delivering explosives to the natural gas pipelines.
Meanwhile, according to Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, the West’s probe into these blasts is geared to shun responsibility. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in turn, said that he has no doubt that the act of sabotage at Nord Streams had been committed with the support from the United States. The Russian prosecutor general’s office initiated a case on international terrorism charges.