In September 2022, NATO officials promised an aggressive response to Russia after explosions took out underwater natural gas pipelines, citing that nation’s “deliberate, reckless, and irresponsible acts of sabotage.”
Yet NATO now faces a predicament, since not Russia but the nation most begging for membership in its ranks seems to be the culprit in the attack 14 months ago.
According to The Washington Post, Col. Roman Chervinsky, a top commando commander in Ukraine’s military, coordinated the blasts that breached the Russian Nord Stream pipelines, which delivered natural gas to parts of western Europe even as war raged.
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Chervinsky denied any involvement, telling the Post in a statement, “All speculations about my involvement in the attack on Nord Stream are being spread by Russian propaganda without any basis.”
The Nord Stream pipelines were critical to all involved, as other European nations received much-needed fuel from Russia, which delivered it by bypassing pipelines in Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denied his nation’s role in the bombing.
“I am president, and I give orders accordingly,” Zelenskyy said back in June. “Nothing of the sort has been done by Ukraine. I would never act that way.”
Yet the Post report indicated Zelenskyy was bypassed to give him plausible deniability of Ukraine’s involvement.
The revelation could be another black eye for Zelenskyy’s strongest ally, President Joe Biden.
The intelligence about Zelenskyy’s lack of knowledge of the attack was part of information leaked by Massachusetts Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira.
The FBI arrested Teixeira earlier this year, and he was later indicted on six counts of willful retention and transmission of classified information relating to national defense.
“As laid out in the indictment, Jack Teixeira was entrusted by the United States government with access to classified national defense information — including information that reasonably could be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to national security if shared,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “Teixeira is charged with sharing information with users on a social media platform he knew were not entitled to receive it. In doing so, he is alleged to have violated U.S. law and endangered our national security.”
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But the recent news of Ukraine’s involvement in the bombing could undermine Biden’s attacks on Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom Biden has repeatedly villainized for the war in Ukraine.
At the time of the bombing, Putin denied Russia was to blame and said “the Anglo-Saxons” were responsible.
Biden accused Putin of “pumping out disinformation and lies.”
According to WaPo, Col. Chervinsky managed a six-man special operations team that used a rented sailboat to set charges at three locations along the Nord Stream pipeline under the Baltic Sea.
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