BERLIN, September 6. /TASS/. Germany Chancellor Olaf Scholz wants to know who was behind the blasts at the Nord Steam gas pipelines, German government spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit said.
"The German chancellor has given to understand several times that he wants to know who is responsible for the attack [on Nord Streams]. Those who are responsible for this should be punished," he told a briefing.
According to the spokesperson, the topic of the Nord Steams act of sabotage is still on the agenda, including in contacts with Kiev. "We are in talks with the Ukrainian side and I think that the Ukrainian president also said publicly that his government has no links to this (the acts of sabotage - TASS)," he said.
Following reports that Ukraine could be behind the blasts, Germany once again contacted that country’s government, Hebestreit recalled, adding that the Ukrainian government had publicly denied its involvement.
August Hanning, who served as director of Germany's Federal Intelligence Service from 1998-2005, told the Die Welt newspaper on August 16 that the Polish and Ukrainian presidents, Andrzej Duda and Vladimir Zelensky, had apparently agreed to collaborate in sabotaging the underwater pipelines as this "terrorist act" could not have been just a private endeavor. He called on German leaders to demand that Kiev and Warsaw make up for the losses following the blasts at the pipelines if their involvement in the acts of sabotage is proved.
The Sueddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) newspaper reported on August 14, 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. The German prosecutor’s office, the newspaper said, suspects two other Ukrainian diving instructors of involvement in the Nord Streams sabotage.
Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal newspaper reported, citing sources, that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky approved the plan to sabotage the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, but tried to cancel his decision after the CIA learned about it.