(ReliableNews.org) – In September 2022, underwater explosions prevented the Nord Stream pipelines, which carry gas from Russia to Europe, from operating. The US immediately blamed Russia for the explosions. A new report suggests President Joe Biden’s administration was warned beforehand.
Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira published classified information on Discord earlier this year. He was later arrested and charged with federal crimes. Among the documents shared online were some related to the Nord Stream attack, The Washington Post reported. The papers were a report from the European intelligence agencies that collected information that the Ukrainian military was planning an undersea attack using a team of divers who were reporting to the commander in chief of Ukraine’s armed forces. The CIA allegedly received this intel prior to the explosions.
According to the intel, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wouldn’t have known about the attack because the military reported to General Valery Zaluzhny, the country’s highest-ranking military officer. He allegedly kept the president out of the loop so that Zelenskyy would have plausible deniability about the attack on critical infrastructure that could hurt their allies. For example, Germany had long supported the Nord Stream pipelines and received over half of their oil from Russia before the war.
When the attacks took place, Biden called them “a deliberate act of sabotage,” saying the US would work with its allies to figure out what happened. Some officials blamed Russia but started changing their tunes in the months after the attack.
In recent months, there have reportedly been rumblings suggesting Kyiv is actually to blame. The Ukrainian government has not responded to questions about whether it authorized the explosions but has previously denied the allegations. The CIA is also not responding to the allegations, and neither is the White House.
The classified document leak comes at a time when Washington has raised concerns about other attacks by the Ukrainian government against Russia.
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