Russian ships reportedly experienced explosions near Nord Stream lines

According to Scandinavian media, before the explosions on the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea, several Russian naval vessels were located near the later blast sites.

Investigative journalists from Scandinavian broadcasters SVT from Sweden, NRK from Norway, DR from Denmark and Yle from Finland reported this in the third and final episode of their joint documentary “Shadow War”, which was published on Wednesday. They cited radio communications between the ships and the Russian naval base, which a former British Navy intelligence officer had intercepted, as well as satellite imagery.

Accordingly, in the months and days leading up to the explosions, the ships of the fleet spent hours and even a whole day in the areas where the explosions later occurred. The ships would have turned off their transmitters and thus traveled under the radar. A fleet ship with a disabled transmitter and the possibility of underwater operations, the tug “SB-123”, was at the explosion sites five days before the explosions, two others – the “Sibiryakov” and another, which was not identified – as early in June.

A military analyst at the University of Copenhagen, Jens Wenzel Kristoffersen, told broadcasters that all information indicated that operations were taking place underwater.

The Danish army had confirmed to the newspaper “Information” almost a week ago that a patrol vessel had taken a total of 26 photos of the Russian special ship “SS-750” near the blast sites on September 22, 2022. The ship has a mini submarine with grab arms. Four days later, there were several explosions near Bornholm on the pipelines carrying gas from Russia to Germany. Authorities suspect sabotage. It is unclear who is responsible for this. Investigations are ongoing in Germany, Denmark and Sweden.

At the end of March, “t-online”, citing information from security circles and publicly available data, reported that Russian military ships allegedly operated at the crime scene a few days before the pipeline attacks – including the “SS-750” and the now called Tugboat «SB-123». (aeg/sda/dpa)