BERLIN, November 20. /TASS/. Valery Zaluzhny proposed to blow up the Turkish Stream pipeline under the Black Sea when he was Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, but the operation failed, Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine reported, citing its own investigation.

According to the report, Zaluzhny was so thrilled when he learned of plans to sabotage the submarine Nord Stream pipelines across the Baltic Sea that he sought to expand that operation. Sources told the magazine that he suggested blowing up the natural gas pipeline across the Black Sea as well. So a group of saboteurs began planning both operations simultaneously. But the attack on Turkish Stream failed, Der Spiegel wrote, without elaborating. In the end, the saboteurs focused on Nord Stream.

According to the magazine, Zaluzhny liked the idea of not letting Vladimir Zelensky know about the plans. The saboteurs did not trust him and his entourage, Der Spiegel reported.

Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier told chief editors of the world’s major news agencies, at a meeting organized by TASS, that Russia had several times detected Ukrainian attempts to attack the Turkish Stream and Blue Stream natural gas pipelines. He said the ships that guard these subsea links regularly came under attack from uncrewed boats, "which, by the way, are supplied to Ukraine by European countries."

New details

On Wednesday, Der Spiegel, citing its own investigation, published more details about the purported operation to blow up the Nord Stream pipelines and alleged that some of the likely participants in the sabotage attack had long-standing ties to the CIA. The magazine said it identified the participants, but would not publish their names so as not to imperil their lives. Preparations for the operation, allegedly code-named Diameter, were made on a lake in Ukraine.

According to the news outlet, a Swedish security service employee learned about the plans, which were then passed on to security services of other countries. Afterward, a CIA representative showed up at Zelensky's office and demanded to halt the operation. Der Spiegel reported that was when Zelensky himself found out about the plans.

Official investigation

In late September, the German cabinet confirmed arrest warrants had been issued in the pipeline explosions case. The Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported on August 14 that the German Federal Public Prosecutor had issued an arrest warrant for a Ukrainian diving instructor suspected of having played a role in sabotaging the Nord Stream gas pipelines. German prosecutors, according to the newspaper, suspect two more Ukrainian diving instructors of playing roles in the sabotage attack.

German media accused Poland of failing to cooperate in the investigation. According to German investigators, the Polish authorities were reportedly "uncooperative from the very start."

On September 26, 2022, three threads of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 offshore gas pipelines had suffered unprecedented damage. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow had no doubts that the pipelines were blown up with US support. The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office started an investigation into the incident as an act of international terrorism.