German Intelligence Boss Says No Party Can Explain About Nord Stream Pipe Explosion

Illustration of the Nord Stream gas pipeline. (Wikimedia Commons/Pjotr Mahhonin)

JAKARTA - No intelligence agency can currently clearly state who is responsible for the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipeline, said German Federal Intelligence Agency (BND) President Bruno Kahl.

"No country, no intelligence agency in the world today can associate this (Sabotage of Nord Stream) with anyone specifically," he said, quoted by TASS May 24.

Kahl mengingatkan, lokasi sabotasi yang berada di dasar laut, membuat pekerjaan para penyelidik menjadi lebih sulit.

"Maybe this will change, there are some important successes in the investigation," Kahl said.

According to him, investigations are being carried out in different directions.

"I don't rule out, there will be successes that will make one option more likely, and the other less likely," Kahl said.

On May 21, German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung reported at least two Ukrainians may have been involved in an explosion in the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 pipelines.

Germany's Federal Public Prosecutor's Office on Monday did not comment on this information when asked by TASS.

The agency said investigations were ongoing on all evidence to establish facts, but it was not possible to provide additional data at this time.

In turn, Foreign Minister Steffen Hebestreit, commenting on information from Suddeutsche Zeitung, said the German government had no intention of speculating about the perpetrators of the Nord Stream sabotage.

Previously, Nord Stream AG reported "unprecedented damage" in three series of offshore gas pipelines of the Nord Stream system on September 27, 2022.

The pipes, which connect Russia and Germany under the Baltic Sea, were damaged by unexplained explosions, with Moscow calling them acts of international terrorism.

Then, Swedish seismologists said they had identified two explosions on the Nord Stream pipeline route on September 26, 2022. After the incident, the Russian prosecutor's office opened the case on charges of international terrorism.