BERLIN, January 25. /TASS/. Co-chair of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) Alice Weidel has warned that in the event her party comes to power, it will demand Ukraine compensate for the damage from the acts of sabotage at the Nord Stream gas pipelines.
"The lack of cheap natural gas is harmful not only for Germany but also for entire Europe, but this is most harmful for Germany," she said during a party campaign event in the state of Baden-Wurttemberg in southwestern Germany.
"How come that the German government has so little self-esteem not even to demand an investigation? I can say what we will do when we come to power. We will demand compensation. The Ukrainians, [Vladimir] Zelensky must simply pay for undermining our pipeline," she stressed.
According to Weidel, a country that is acting this way is not a friend to Germany. She recalled that Germany has allocated more than 70 billion euro to support Ukraine. "We have been supplying them with weapons. [Chancellor Friedrich] Merz promised to send German soldiers. How can he be so indifferent about history? And, by the way, send German tanks against Russia. How can we be doing this? How can the German government be doing this?" she said.
Der Spiegel reported on Thursday that the German Federal Supreme Court considers it "highly likely" that the explosions were carried out "on the orders of a foreign state." The court’s December 10 ruling, cited by the magazine, references Ukraine as the potential orchestrator. This conclusion emerged during an appeal by the defense of Ukrainian citizen Sergey K., who is suspected of involvement in the blasts and is currently detained in Germany after being apprehended in Italy last year.
The incident, which occurred on September 26, 2022, caused unprecedented damage to three lines of the Nord Stream pipeline and the never commissioned Nord Stream 2. The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office has since launched an investigation into the incident, classifying it as an act of international terrorism.