Danish officials said on Tuesday that a “powerful explosion” had damaged the Nord Stream pipeline under the Baltic Sea.
The Russian-built Nord Stream system carried billions of cubic feet of natural gas from Russia to Germany before it was damaged late last month. No country or group has claimed responsibility for the incident, and the United States has not issued an official statement on who may have been behind it.
in translation statement, the Danish Police Information Service confirmed that “extensive damage” to the pipeline was caused by a “powerful explosion”. However, the National Police Agency denied responsibility for the explosion.
“We cannot say when we can expect the larger investigation to be completed,” the statement continued. “While we understand the great interest in this incident, at this time no further information will be released from the gas leak investigation.”
Swedish and Danish authorities are investigating four holes in the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines. The Danish findings appeared to be similar to those of Swedish prosecutors.
Video footage shot by a Norwegian robotics company It was published Swedish news outlets have found a major gap in the Nord Stream 1 pipeline. The outlet reported that about 50 meters, or about 150 feet, were lost in the explosion.
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Some European officials have suggested that the explosion may have been caused by Russia, but those claims were categorically denied by the Kremlin, including top spokesman Dmitry Peskov. Days after the blast was reported, Peskov told reporters that such claims were “predictably ridiculous” and why Russia would destroy the system it helped build and invested so much money in. I doubted.
Senior U.S. officials have also denied that Washington was involved in the incident. Some, including an economics professor at Columbia University, say the U.S. has a lot to gain from the Nord Stream pipeline going down, as it would make European countries more dependent on U.S. natural gas. I’m guessing.
Its professor, Jeffrey Sachs, said in an interview in early October that President Joe Biden also publicly opposed the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, days before Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine in February. .
“If Russia invades, if tanks and troops cross the Ukrainian border again, there will be no Nord Stream 2 anymore. We will end it,” Biden said at an event in February. He also told reporters, “I promise, we can do it.”
Nonetheless, as gas flows from Russia, which once supplied 40% of Europe’s demand, have declined, how does the European Union respond to price hikes that have deepened a crisis in the cost of living for families and businesses? Struggling to unite on what?
The European Commission on Tuesday proposed a series of emergency measures to combat soaring energy prices. This includes EU countries starting to purchase gas jointly. But he avoided proposing an immediate gas price cap amid disagreements over the idea.
Due to a dispute over Western sanctions for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, supply through Nordstream 1 had already been stopped before the leak was discovered. Nord Stream 2 had not started commercial distribution.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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Jack Phillips is a New York-based breaking news reporter for the Epoch Times.