Terrorist Attacks on Nord Stream Pipelines

By Frank , 23 April 2026

The article below is a faithful reproduction of an English version published on Sputnik. This site is not accessible in the EU due to sanctions against Russia.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20250926/terrorist-attacks-on-nord-stream-pipelines-1122856643.html

Terrorist Attacks on Nord Stream Pipelines

History of Pipeline Construction

Nord Stream 1: Construction began in 2010, with commercial deliveries starting in 2012. It provided reliable gas supplies to Europe for more than 10 years. Deliveries were halted in late August 2022 when Gazprom identified malfunctions. German company Siemens was ready to repair the issues, but that was impossible due to Western sanctions.

Nord Stream 2: Completed by September 2021, filled with gas but not launched because Germany suspended certification.

Nord Stream 2 © Photo: Nord Stream 2 / Paul Langrock

Pipe-laying vessel Fortuna leaves the port of Wismar © Sputnik / Dmitry Lelchuk -

Employees work at the construction site of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline outside the town of Kingisepp, Leningrad region, Russia. The Nord Stream 2 project includes the construction of a twin pipeline that will deliver around 55 billion cubic metres (almost 2 trillion cubic feet) of gas directly to Germany and other European countries.

Employees work at the construction site of Nord Stream © Sputnik / Илья Питалев

Western Opposition to Nord Stream

• In 2018, former US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson opposed the Nord Stream 2 project, arguing that the pipeline would undermine Europe’s energy security. He believed that Moscow might use energy as a political tool. According to Tillerson, the US would help Europe (particularly Poland) diversify energy sources by providing American liquefied natural gas.

• Before the explosions in 2022, Joe Biden threatened to block its operation in the event of Russian “tanks or troops crossing the border of Ukraine.” American journalist Seymour Hersh reported that Biden viewed the pipelines as a tool Putin could use to weaponise natural gas.

• Donald Trump not only imposed sanctions on Nord Stream in 2019 but also accused Biden of approving the Russian pipeline to Europe. In an interview with American journalist Tucker Carlson in 2024, Trump recalled that it was he who had essentially destroyed the pipeline.

• Unlike the US, the German government under Angela Merkel supported the project.

Helmet of a worker at the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline construction site © Sputnik / Ilya Pitalev

Sabotage: What Happened in 2022

• On 26 September 2022, three of the four strings of the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 pipelines were blown up at a depth of 80 metres in the Baltic Sea, with four gas leaks discovered.

• The incident occurred in Denmark’s exclusive economic zone. Swedish seismologists recorded two explosions along the pipeline routes.

• Authorities in Denmark, Sweden and Germany did not rule out sabotage. The blasts caused unprecedented damage to infrastructure that had been delivering affordable Russian gas to Germany and other Western European countries for decades.

• On 28 September, Russia’s Prosecutor General initiated a case concerning an act of international terrorism.

• On 30 September, Vladimir Putin stated that the explosion was aimed at “destroying European energy infrastructure.”

• The perpetrators of the terror attack have not been identified.

Investigation of the Terror Attack – Official Statements and Versions in Western Media

Germany, Denmark and Sweden began national investigations in October 2022, excluding Russia’s participation. Sweden’s security service confirmed sabotage, finding traces of explosives at the site.

Moscow repeatedly called for an international investigation involving Russia and requested access to the materials. The Russian Foreign Ministry labelled the situation a scam and a fraud.

In October 2022, the Swedish newspaper Expressen published the first footage of damage to the Nord Stream pipelines. An underwater drone recorded significant damage to the pipeline.

https://maritime-executive.com/article/video-first-imagery-of-blast-damage-to-the-nord-stream-pipelines

First Imagery of Blast Damage to the Nord Stream Pipelines
Published Oct 18, 2022 5:53 PM by The Maritime Executive

Swedish newspaper Expressen has released the first published images of the blast damage to Gazprom’s Nord Stream subsea pipeline system. Using a miniature ROV operated by BlueEye Robotics, Expressen surveyed at least one leak site on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline complex. (The Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 “pipelines” each have two physical pipes, four in total.)
The brief video clearly shows a splinter of fractured steel peeled away from the pipeline wall, not pushed inward toward the interior. The line is cleanly severed through its circumference, and a 150-foot section of the four-foot-wide, inch-thick steel pipe was “missing” from the site, according to Expressen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F80CAoBte6I

Four separate penetrations of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipeline complexes occurred in close succession on 26 September. Three out of four pipes were ruptured, leaving one single pipe of the Nord Stream 2 complex intact. All were full at the time of the damage, and the gas took about one week to drain out, delaying the start of an investigation. The incident is believed to be the largest methane release in history.

On Tuesday, a Danish police investigative team said that it had concluded that “powerful explosions” were responsible for the blast. Sweden’s Security Service announced a similar conclusion of “gross sabotage” caused by “detonations” earlier this month.

Dmitri Alperovitch, chairman of the Silverado Policy Accelerator and a frequent commentator on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, noted on Tuesday that the blasts did not necessarily have to originate outside the pipeline. For an actor with access to the inside of the pipe, it would be possible to deliver an explosive charge from within using an inspection crawler or a similar device. This attack method would not require any operations in the water column, reducing the odds of detection.

The governments of Poland and Ukraine have accused the Russian government, the main beneficial owner of Nord Stream 1 and 2, of carrying out the attack. The Kremlin has denied involvement and has blamed the United States government.
Russia has demanded access to the ongoing investigations into the blasts, but Denmark and Sweden have so far denied its requests.

For more videos click here

• On 31 October 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Gazprom had been allowed to inspect the explosion site of the Nord Streams. According to him, two craters had formed at the site of the explosion. A 40-metre section of pipe had been torn and bent by 90 degrees. Its fragments, he suggested, damaged a nearby string of Nord Stream 2.

• In October 2022, the Russian Ministry of Defence stated that British Navy representatives in Ochakov, Mykolaiv region, Ukraine, participated in preparing and carrying out the pipeline blasts. Renowned German-Finnish entrepreneur and Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom said that former British Prime Minister Liz Truss sent a text message to former US Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying “All done” right after the explosion. Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev stated that this text “confirms the involvement of the British Navy in the explosion.” Sergey Naryshkin, head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, also mentioned that Russia had indirect reasons to believe that this message referred to the explosion on the Nord Streams.

© Photo: Swedish Coast Guard
In this picture provided by the Swedish Coast Guard, the gas leak in the Baltic Sea from Nord Stream is photographed from the Coast Guard’s aircraft on Wednesday, 27 September 2022 © Photo: Swedish Coast Guard

• In his 2023 investigation, American journalist Seymour Hersh said the explosion was a US Navy operation, supported by Norway and personally authorised by Joe Biden, with the CIA under William Burns designing the sabotage plan. According to Hersh, the sabotage was carried out by divers under the cover of the Baltops exercises. Official US and Norwegian authorities dismissed these claims as nonsense.

• Starting in March 2023, Western media began actively promoting the theory of a Ukrainian connection in the sabotage. According to investigations (The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Spiegel, ARD, Die Zeit), the operation was prepared by a group of Ukrainian officers. It was suggested that the Andromeda yacht was used for the operation. Reports stated that the commander of Ukraine’s armed forces, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, allegedly gave the go-ahead for the sabotage, and that President Zelensky was reportedly not informed.

• In February 2024, Sweden and Denmark closed their investigations without presenting public results.

• In August 2025, a Ukrainian national, Sergey Kuznetsov, was arrested in Italy. The German prosecutor’s office considers him the coordinator of the group that placed the explosive devices.

• On 16 September 2025, the Bologna court in Italy ruled to extradite Kuznetsov to the German authorities. On 25 September, his lawyer appealed the extradition decision before the Italian Supreme Court.

• Russia considers the version involving only a Ukrainian connection to the explosions on the Nord Streams untenable and directly blames the US and its allies, including the United Kingdom, for the explosions.

Germany is still continuing its investigation.

View PDF