Important details of explosions at Nord Stream revealed in the West

Traces of explosives were found at the sites of gas leaks from Nord Stream. Swedish prosecutors say a “complicated” investigation and analysis is ongoing to see if suspects in the gas pipeline sabotage act can be identified.

Traces of explosives were found at numerous leaks from the Nord Stream gas pipeline in September, confirming that the violations were the result of sabotage, the Swedish prosecutor’s office said.

“Analysis currently carried out shows traces of explosives at several sites that have been recovered” from the scene in the Baltic Sea, prosecutor Mats Jungqvist, who leads the investigation, said Friday.

According to The Guardian, Jungqvist said the investigation was “very complex and comprehensive” and the analysis will continue to draw “more reliable conclusions” and determine if any suspects can be identified. But so far there has been evidence of “gross sabotage,” the prosecutor said.

Investigators in Sweden, Denmark and Germany are investigating what happened. In October, Danish officials confirmed that the pipelines had suffered significant damage from “massive explosions”.

Swedish and Danish authorities are conducting separate investigations into the four breaches of the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines, which transport gas between Russia and Germany across the Baltic Sea off the Danish island of Bornholm.

Two leaks occurred in the exclusive economic zone of Denmark and two in Sweden. Last month, the Swedish daily newspaper Expressen reported that a 50m section of the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline was missing after publishing underwater drone footage.

Seismologists in both countries recorded tremors in the area just before leaks were reported that did not look like those caused by quakes, with Denmark last month saying early signs point to “powerful explosions.”

Scientists say the September 26 outbursts, which experts say are equivalent to several hundred kilograms of TNT, may have caused one of the worst natural gas leaks ever, releasing gases into the sea, including methane, the biggest cause of climate warming since carbon dioxide.

The pipelines have been at the center of geopolitical tensions after Russia cut gas supplies to Europe, apparently in response to sanctions imposed by the West after Moscow launched a special military operation in Ukraine. Nord Stream 1 carried Russian gas to Germany until Moscow cut off supplies at the end of August. Nord Stream 2 was never put into operation because Berlin suspended the certification process shortly before the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine in February.

The governments of Denmark, Germany and Sweden have refrained from speculating about who might be behind the sabotage, saying only that there is not yet sufficient evidence to identify the perpetrator. “We have no information about the possible initiators of this act of sabotage,” Steffen Hebestrait, spokesman for German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, said at a regular government press conference in Berlin on Friday.

Last month, London denied Russia’s allegations that the British Navy was responsible for the bombings. Moscow blames the West for the pipeline explosion and points to the United States as the party profiting from attacks on Europe’s energy infrastructure.

Washington and Moscow deny their involvement in the Nord Stream incidents. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that “it is very important to find those behind the explosion,” the Associated Press said. Sweden’s findings about “an act of sabotage or a terrorist act – you can call it whatever you like” confirm “the information that the Russian side had,” Peskov said. Moscow needs to wait for a full damage assessment to decide whether to repair the pipelines, he said.

Mats Jungqvist said that the cooperation between the Swedish, Danish and other national authorities was “working perfectly” and that no further information would be provided so that the investigators could continue their work “in peace and quiet”.

German authorities are conducting their own investigation in close cooperation with Swedish and Danish groups after Berlin’s proposal for a formal joint investigation was rejected, reportedly on national security grounds.