Bild: the Andromeda yacht could not be used to undermine the Nord Streams

The Andromeda yacht, allegedly involved in the Nord Stream explosions, does not have the technical capability to release the involved amount of explosives into the water, reported German newspaper Bild.

According to the publication, it was on this yacht that the German investigation conducted searches in January 2023. The yacht was chartered by Mola Yachting in the German city of Brege on the island of Rügen. Bild, citing local media, clarified that Andromeda allegedly sailed from Rostock through Rügen to Bornholm, where at least 1,500 kg of explosives were placed at a depth of about 80 m.

The publication doubted this version, since there is no crane on the yacht to safely lower such an amount of explosives into the water, and, according to the authors, the Ukrainian sabotage group could not carry it through Poland and Germany without attracting the attention of the special services and the police.

In addition, the operation required a large amount of equipment for divers, which Andromeda was not designed to carry. One of the dive instructors Bild spoke to noted that it took four to eight hours to complete such an operation, and if the boat stood in one place for that long, it would also attract attention.

March 7 The New York Times reported about the emergence of new intelligence agencies from the United States, which speak of the involvement of a certain pro-Ukrainian group in sabotage on the Nord Streams. Sources of the newspaper among American officials specified that Washington had no evidence of involvement in the blowing up of pipelines by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his subordinates. No “Russian trace” was found in the case either.

Later that day, the German newspaper Zeit, citing the German investigation statedthat a Ukrainian ship, on which traces of explosives were found, could be involved in the sabotage.

The Kremlin called the publications a “coordinated stuffing” and questioned the involvement of pro-Ukrainian forces in undermining the Nord Streams. The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, called on the West to respond to Russia’s requests for sabotage, and not to allow leaks in the information field.

The Nord Stream incident occurred on the night of September 26, 2022. Pressure dropped in both pipelines. Two subsequently discovered leaks were in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of Sweden, and two more were in the Danish EEZ.