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Traces of explosives found at Nord Stream pipelines, Sweden says
Swedish prosecutors confirm gas pipelines were sabotaged as probe continues in attempt to identify suspects.
"Investigators have found traces of explosives at the site of the damaged Nord Stream pipelines, confirming that gross sabotage had taken place, a Swedish prosecutor said on Friday.
Swedish and Danish authorities are investigating four holes in the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines which link Russia and Germany via the Baltic Sea and have become a flashpoint in the Ukraine crisis.
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Denmark last month said a preliminary investigation had shown that the leaks were caused by powerful explosions.
“Analysis that has now been carried out shows traces of explosives on several of the objects that were recovered,” the Swedish Prosecution Authority said in a statement.
“The investigation is highly complex and comprehensive. The ongoing probe will determine whether any suspects can be identified,” it added.
The prosecutor’s office declined to give further comment.
Seismologists in Denmark and Sweden have previously said they had registered tremors in the immediate vicinity of the leaks and that the signals did not resemble those from earthquakes.
The September 26 ruptures of the seabed pipelines, spewing gas into the ocean that bubbled to the surface in the week that followed, triggered warnings of public hazards and fears of environmental damage.
A section measuring at least 50 metres (164 feet) is missing from Nord Stream 1, the Swedish daily Expressen reported on October 18 after filming what it said were the first publicly released images of the damage.
Russia’s defence ministry last month said that British navy personnel blew up the pipelines, a claim that London said was false and designed to distract from Russian military failures in Ukraine.
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The Kremlin has also previously said the probe was set up to frame Russia.
Meanwhile, some Western nations have suggested Russia was behind the ruptures, a claim Moscow denies.
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Debris from ruptured pipelines shows traces of explosives, Sweden says
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"Debris collected from the site of the ruptured Nord Stream gas pipelines has revealed evidence of explosives, indicating an act of “gross sabotage,” Swedish prosecutors said Friday, backing up European authorities’ earlier assertions that blasts had deliberately targeted the critical infrastructure.
A series of undersea explosions ripped holes in the Nord Stream pipelines in late September, damaging the links built to carry Russian natural gas to Germany and rendering them unusable. The statement from the Swedish prosecutors provides the first public forensic confirmation that explosives were found at the site.
“Analyses now carried out show residues of explosives on several of the foreign objects found” at the site, said Mats Ljungqvist, the prosecutor in charge of the Swedish investigation.
He did not give further details on the evidence collected or a potential suspect.
Denmark and Germany are also carrying out investigations into the explosions. European authorities have called the leaks “a deliberate act” aimed at exacerbating an energy dispute between Europe and Russia that has escalated since Russian troops invaded Ukraine in February.
Ljungqvist said in a statement that “extensive seizures” had been made and that the area surrounding the sites where the pipes were damaged had been thoroughly documented. Investigators are now carrying out more “advanced analysis,” he said, “with the aim of drawing more reliable conclusions about the incident.”
He described the Swedish investigation as “very complex and extensive” and said that it would continue with the aim of indicating “whether anyone can be suspected of a crime,” without elaborating further.
The two main leaks occurred on each of the pipelines, which consist of a twin strand of pipes, in busy international waters: one northeast and the other south of the Danish island of Bornholm. The Danish authorities said last month that “powerful explosions” had caused the Nord Stream 1 and 2 natural gas pipelines to rupture, although they declined to say who might have caused them.
A submersible drone operator who filmed the site for the Swedish tabloid Expressen after Swedish authorities finished their initial investigation said last month that he could not tell from his images the extent to which Swedish investigators had removed debris from the sea floor, or from the ruptured pipeline itself. The images by the drone operator, Trond Larsen, showed a gaping end of a pipe that appeared to have been sheared off.
Nord Stream AG, the company that owns and operates the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, has said it was allowed to send its own investigative teams to each of the main sites in the waters that fall under Danish and Swedish economic control.
This month, the company said its preliminary survey of the damage site examined by the Swedish prosecutor had shown unnatural craters as deep as 10 to 16 feet and about 800 feet apart. The section of the pipe between the craters was destroyed, and debris had been scattered, Nord Stream said.
Russia has accused the British navy of targeting the pipelines. London has denied any involvement and called the claim a distraction.
Since the blasts, NATO and its European partners have increased patrols around critical infrastructure in the Baltic Sea and the North Sea, which is home to a vast network of cables and pipelines connecting Norway — Europe’s most important energy exporter since Russia invaded Ukraine — to Britain and the European mainland."
First pictures of Nord Stream pipeline show 50m hole after 'powerful explosions'
A massive tear and twisted metal can be seen in video footage, with much of the stretch of pipe either missing or buried under the seabed
An explosion in the Nord Stream 1 pipeline last month destroyed 50 metres of pipe, new underwater images show.
A massive tear can be seen in video footage, with much of the stretch of pipe either missing or buried under the seabed.
"It is only an extreme force that can bend metal that thick in the way we are seeing," Trond Larsen, a drone operator with the Norwegian company Blueye Robotics, told the Danish newspaper Expressen.
Mr Larsen, who piloted the submersible drone, said you could also see "a very large impact on the seabed around the pipe".
The two Nord Stream pipelines were damaged by explosions under the Baltic Sea at the end of September, causing four leaks.
While the explosions took place in international waters, two of them were in the Danish exclusive economic zone and two of in the Swedish zone.
Swedish and Danish officials have been conducting investigations since the explosions.
On Tuesday, Danish officials confirmed that there had been "extensive damage" to the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines in the Baltic Sea off Denmark, and that the cause of the damage was "powerful explosions".
Swedish authorities announced on October 6 that they had conducted an underwater inspection of the site and collected "pieces of evidence", and that the inspection backed up suspicions of probable sabotage.
The pipelines, which connect Russia to Germany, have been at the centre of geopolitical tensions as Russia cuts gas supplies to Europe in suspected retaliation against Western sanctions over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
World leaders have called the explosions an act of sabotage, while Moscow has sought to pin the blame on the West, suggesting the US stood to gain. Washington has denied any involvement.
The damaged Nord Stream pipelines discharged huge amounts of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, into the air for several days.
The Kremlin said on Tuesday that the international investigation into the explosions was set up with the intention of blaming Russia.
Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin's spokesman, said "elementary logic" showed that damage to the pipeline was a blow to Russia's interests.
He said the investigation was being conducted "secretively" and without Moscow's involvement.
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