BERLIN (Dispatches) -- Nord Stream AG said Wednesday that a roughly 250-metre (820-feet) section of pipeline was “destroyed”, after the operator carried out an investigation on the pipeline after explosions at the end of September.
“Craters with a depth of three to five meters were found on the seabed at a distance of about 248 meters from each other” along a Nord Stream 1 pipeline, the operator said in a statement.
“The section of the pipe between the craters is destroyed,” it said.
Four leaks emerged on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines in the Baltic Sea off the coast of the Danish island of Bornholm at the end of September, with seismic institutes reporting that they had recorded two underwater explosions prior to the leaks appearing.
While the leaks were in international waters, two of them were in the Danish exclusive economic zone and two of them in the Swedish.
Swedish authorities announced in early October that they had conducted an underwater inspection of the site and that the inspection backed up suspicions of sabotage.
The Nord Stream group, which operates the twin Nord Stream 1 pipelines, has launched its own investigation and said Wednesday it would “continue to analyze” data gathered from the site.
The pipelines, which connect
Russia to Germany, have been at the centre of geopolitical tensions as Russia cut gas supplies to Europe in suspected retaliation to Western sanctions over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Although they were not in operation when the leaks occurred, they both still contained gas which spewed up through the water and into the atmosphere.
The Kremlin on Tuesday accused the United Kingdom of “directing and coordinating” explosions on the Nord Stream gas pipelines.
“Our intelligence services have data indicating that British military specialists were directing and coordinating the attack,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists.
“There is evidence that Britain is involved in sabotage, in a terrorist attack on vital energy infrastructure, not Russian, but international.”
He did not provide any details but insisted that the West should “carefully” analyze Moscow’s information.
“We expect that despite the unacceptable silence of the European countries, this analysis will nevertheless be carried out,” he said, adding that Russia would also consider further steps.
London has earlier dismissed Russia’s claims, with its defense ministry calling the charges an “invented story”.
Explosions in late September sent natural gas bubbling up from the pipelines on the floor of the Baltic Sea to the surface in a major environmental disaster that further ratcheted up geopolitical tensions over energy supplies.
Moscow has accused Western countries of being behind the explosions of the pipelines, built to carry Russian gas to Germany, but has not provided any firm proof.
Moscow will shortly summon the UK ambassador to Russia, Deborah Bronnert, over its accusation that “British specialists” were involved in a Ukrainian drone attack on the Crimean port of Sevastopol, the Russia foreign ministry said late Wednesday.
Russia has repeatedly blamed the UK for Saturday’s audacious attack, in which a swarm of drones attacked Russia’s Black Sea fleet.
Russian officials have claimed a Royal Navy unit directed operations from the southern Ukrainian port of Ochakiv.
Maria Zakharova, a Russian foreign ministry spokesperson, said: “These actions were carried out under the guidance of British specialists. In this regard, the British ambassador will shortly be summoned to the Russian foreign ministry.” She said Bronnert would be presented with evidence of British involvement in the strike.