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The United States learned of a Ukrainian plan to attack the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline three months before it was damaged by several underwater explosions, the Washington Post reported Tuesday, citing leaked information posted on internet.
According to the newspaper, the US Intelligence Agency, CIA, learned last June from a European spy agency that a six-person team of Ukrainian special operations forces intended to blow up the Russian-German project.
It is suspected that the disclosure information was shared on the social platform 'Discord' by Air National Guard employee Jack Teixeira, who has already been charged with leaking US secret documents. The Washington Post said it had received a copy of the disclosure information from one of Mr. Teixeira's online friends.
According to the Washington Post, the Ukrainian plan was learned from information received from an individual in Ukraine, adding that the CIA had shared it with Germany and other European countries since June of last year.
The article said that officials from many countries had confirmed that the intelligence summary, posted on Discord, accurately described what the European service had told the CIA.
The Russian attack on Ukraine drew attention to the issue of Europe's dependence on Russian natural gas. The damage to the Nord Stream pipelines hastened the transition of the region to other sources of hydrocarbon supply.
Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2, each consisting of two pipelines, were built by Russian state-owned company Gazprom, and were expected to transport 110 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year to Germany.
The "Washington Post" announced that it had decided not to publish the name of the European intelligence agency, as well as some aspects of the suspected plan, at the request of government officials, due to the danger posed to intelligence sources and operations.
The CIA has not yet responded to a request for comment.
White House spokesman John Kirby said Monday that the investigation into the Nord Stream attack is still ongoing.
" The last thing we want to do from this podium is preempt the investigation ," Mr. Kirby said when asked by reporters about the Washington Post article on the matter.
The "Reuters" agency has not been able to confirm the discovery information referred to by the "Washington Post".
In September 2022, several underwater explosions involved the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, as well as the newly constructed Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which connects Russia and Germany through the Baltic Sea.
The explosions occurred in the economic zones of Sweden and Denmark. Both countries say the explosions were intentional, but it has not yet been determined who was responsible for the incident. These countries, as well as Germany, are still investigating this issue.
Washington and NATO have called the incident "an act of sabotage". Moscow blamed the West, accusing it of delaying the investigation and trying to cover up who was behind the attack. / VOA
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