Wall Street Journal Scoop Finally Reveals Who Blew Up Nord Stream Pipeline

Swedish Coast Guard via AP

The Wall Street Journal purports to have solved an international mystery that has confounded nations involved in the war between Russia and Ukraine: who sabotaged the Nord Stream pipelines.

According to a bombshell report from the Journal , a small team of Ukrainian divers blew up the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines in defiance of an order by President Volodymyr Zelensky that the initially approved operation, first suggested during a drunken night months earlier, be called off.

The pipelines, Nord Stream 1 and 2, which transported natural gas from Russia to Germany, were severely damaged by explosions in September 2022, just months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This act intensified Europe’s energy crisis, and blame has been widely speculated, ranging from Russian involvement to CIA operations.

According to the Journal report, a group of six Ukrainian divers allegedly chartered a 50-foot pleasure boat from Germany, sailed it to the Baltic Sea, and planted explosive charges on the Nord Stream pipeline.

The report cited four Ukrainian defense officials who either participated in or were familiar with the plot, though the officials were not named. The Journal also linked several details of the operation to an ongoing German investigation of the incident.

The idea to sabotage the pipeline reportedly emerged during a drunken night a few months earlier, when a group of Ukrainian businessmen and senior military officers were celebrating their country’s recent military successes. The report claims the plan was hatched on a budget of budget of around $300,000 with the backing of then-army chief Valeriy Zaluzhniy .

The project initially got the go-ahead from Zelensky — but in June, the CIA received a tip-off about it, and sought to stop to it, the report said.

While Zelensky reportedly approved the mission, he later withdrew support after the CIA intervened when it was tipped-off.

Following the Journal’s publishing of its story, the Ukrainian president’s office, however, denied these allegations , pointing the finger at Russia.

Ukrainian spokesperson Mykhailo Podolyak also rejected the allegations, stating that only Russia had the “extensive technical and financial resources” required to execute such an attack. Further distancing Ukraine from the incident, a senior official from Ukraine’s security service insisted that Zelenskiy “did not approve” any such operation.

Theories abound as the perpetrator and since the attack, various parties have publicly pointed fingers at Russia, the U.S., Ukraine, and the U.K. for the explosions , each accusation accompanied by differing levels of evidence.