Biden could 'drop' Kiev after blaming it for Nord Stream sabotage

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Experts are raising the possibility that US President Joe Biden may consider abandoning his support for Ukraine or pressuring it into a peace settlement with Moscow after a New York Times (NYT) report blamed Kiev on Wednesday for sabotaging the Nord Stream pipeline.

Several reports have been issued over the past few days since Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh uncovered that the US was behind the sabotage operation.

Experts noted that this intends to distort information so as to shift the focus away from the US by placing the blame on Ukraine.

For instance, the NYT report states that a "pro-Ukrainian group" was responsible for carrying out the attack and that the CIA warned European countries prior to the incident that Ukrainians were planning to affect sabotage the pipelines. 

German newspaper Die Zeit said that the group rented a boat from a Polish-based firm owned by Ukrainian businessmen. 

Experts note that both stories and several other reports are intended to divert attention away from the fact that the US was behind the operation.

Hersh effectively found that US navy divers planted explosives on the pipelines during NATO drills that were held in the summer of 2022. The explosives were then detonated three months later.

Read more: New Nord Stream reports part of disinformation campaign: Kremlin

Experts told Sputnik that framing Ukraine over the Nord Stream attack may indicate that the Kiev government no longer holds a level of interest as much as it once used to for the Biden administration.   

"Importantly, this also indicates that they are ready to wash their hands of the Ukraine regime, probably call for a negotiated settlement to the war and regroup," analyst Alex Krainer told the news agency, noting that the false reports are now widely circulating as lacking credibility.

"They [the Biden administration] are hoping that we are all dumb, and they are counting on their EU/ NATO/German public leaders to embrace it and amplify it as the most credible explanation for what happened," he said.

 "How many buy it today is secondary, this will be the designated 'truth' for posterity and will be forced into history books."  

Another observer told Sputnik that Hersh's findings exerted immense pressure on the US to try to conceal the truth by seeking to push for an alternative narrative.

"Perhaps there is an attempt to scapegoat Ukraine now that the cat is out of the bag and heat is being placed on the Biden administration because of Hersh's expose," historian and foreign policy analyst Jeremy Kuzmarov told Sputnik, adding that Hersh's report exposed the true colors of the Biden administration's policymaking. 

"The Hersh report shows the United States to be an aggressive power carrying out a brazen act of international terrorism that is tantamount to an act of war against Russia," he added.

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