Dutch officials warned CIA of Kiev plot to bomb Nord Stream: Reports
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CNN reports, referring to information from three US officials, that intel from a European ally was handed to the US regarding a potential attack by the Ukrainian military on the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines.
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The underwater explosion of the Nord Stream pipeline in September 2022 (AFP)
According to a report by Dutch public broadcaster NOS, the Dutch military intelligence warned the CIA, about a Ukrainian plan to blow up the Nord Stream pipelines a mere three months before they were struck.
The report, without citing a source, was based on a joint investigation by NOS, the Dutch television news show Nieuwsuur [Newshour], and German media Die Zeit and ARD.
CNN reported last week, referring to information from three US officials, that intel from a European ally was handed to the US regarding a potential attack by the Ukrainian military on the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines.
In addition, another report by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on Tuesday demonstrated that the CIA warned Ukraine last year to not strike the pipelines after receiving information about an alleged Ukrainian plan, citing officials who told the WSJ that the intel was received from the Dutch military.
Read more: CIA reports Ukraine role in Nord Stream sabotage to yet another state
According to NOS, the Dutch military intelligence service, MIVD, was capable of gathering detailed information about the Ukrainian plot.
In March, the WSJ reported that the CIA warned Germany's Federal Intelligence service, BND, months before the pipelines were hit.
In detail, the CIA gave information regarding three Ukrainian nationals trying to rent ships in countries bordering the Baltic Sea, such as Sweden, which is currently conducting its own investigation into the blast.
Although I enjoy collecting amusing conspiracy theories about 🇺🇦 government, I have to say: 🇺🇦 has nothing to do with the Baltic Sea mishap and has no information about "pro-🇺🇦 sabotage groups". What happened to the Nord Stream pipelines? "They sank," as they say in RF itself...
— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) March 7, 2023
Furthermore, CIA director William Burns and national security adviser Jake Sullivan, among other senior US officials, were considering the possibility that Ukraine was behind the attack back in October. However, they did not declare what their assessment was based on.
Read next: Seymour Hersh: Biden bombed Nord Stream, 'everyone's on our hit list'
The pipelines, which transport gas from Russia into the European Union under the Baltic Sea, were not actively transporting and functioning at the time of the explosion, even though they held gas under pressure.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak called the idea of blaming Ukraine at the time an “amusing conspiracy” theory.
Podolyak took to Twitter on Wednesday to express his views on the "deliberate campaign to undermine Ukraine's credibility, reputation, and voice in the global arena".
The endless anonymous sources artificially fueling the disinformation campaign about Ukraine's alleged involvement in the destruction of the Nord Stream should be viewed as a deliberate campaign to undermine Ukraine's credibility, reputation, and voice in the global arena. Who is…
— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) June 13, 2023
Investigations into the matter took a turn to the worst when investigative journalist Seymour Hersh declared in February that the US was behind the explosions.
"Last June, the Navy divers, operating under the cover of a widely publicized mid-summer NATO exercise known as BALTOPS 22, planted the remotely triggered explosives that, three months later, destroyed three of the four Nord Stream pipelines, according to a source with direct knowledge of the operational planning," Hersh wrote in his Substack newsletter.
The White House responded and dismissed the claims as "false and complete fiction."
