Exclusive | A Drunken Evening, a Rented Yacht: The Real Story of the Nord Stream Pipeline Sabotage – WSJ

It was the kind of outlandish scheme that might bubble up in a bar around closing time. 

In May of 2022, a handful of senior Ukrainian military officers and businessmen had gathered to toast their country s remarkable success in halting the Russian invasion. Buoyed by alcohol and patriotic fervor, somebody suggested a radical next step: destroying Nord Stream.

After all, the twin natural-gas pipelines that carried Russian gas to Europe were providing billions to the Kremlin war machine. What better way to make Vladimir Putin pay for his aggression?

Just over four months later, in the small hours of Sept. 26, Scandinavian seismologists picked up signals indicating an underwater earthquake or volcanic eruption hundreds of miles away, near the Danish island of Bornholm. They were caused by three powerful explosions and the largest-ever recorded release of natural gas, equivalent to the annual CO2 emissions of Denmark.

One of the most audacious acts of sabotage in modern history, the operation worsened an energy crisis in Europe an assault on critical infrastructure that could be considered an act of war under international law. Theories swirled about who was responsible. Was it the CIA? Could Putin himself have set the plan in motion?

Now, for the first time, the outlines of the real story can be told. The Ukrainian operation cost around $300,000, according to people who participated in it. It involved a small rented yacht with a six-member crew, including trained civilian divers. One was a woman, whose presence helped create the illusion they were a group of friends on a pleasure cruise. 

via www.wsj.com

Bojan Pancevski.

A gigantic scoop, if true. Historians will debate whether it was to UKR’s advantage or not. Seems to me it definitely was, but historians will have to debate it. That’s if we have anything like credible historians in the future.