Ukraine officer behind sabotage, report says

FRANKFURT, Germany — A senior Ukrainian military official played a key role in sabotaging the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea last year, according to a joint investigation by The Washington Post and the German news magazine Der Spiegel.

Roman Chervinsky, a colonel in Ukraine's Special Operations Forces, was the "coordinator" of the Nord Stream operation, people familiar with his role told the two news outlets.

They quoted officials in Ukraine and elsewhere in Europe, as well as others with knowledge of the operation, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Chervinsky oversaw the logistics and supervised a team of six people who rented a yacht under false identities and used diving equipment to place explosive charges on the pipelines, The Washington Post said.

He neither planned the operation nor acted alone, taking his orders from Ukrainian officials, the paper said.

Four large gas leaks were discovered on Nord Stream's two pipelines off the Danish island of Bornholm at the end of September last year, with seismic institutes recording two underwater explosions just before that.

The pipelines had been at the center of geopolitical tensions as Russia cut gas supplies to Europe in suspected retaliation for Western sanctions over Moscow's special military operation in Ukraine.

Through a lawyer, Chervinsky denied any role in sabotaging the pipelines. "All speculations about my involvement in the attack on Nord Stream are being spread by Russian propaganda without any basis," Chervinsky told The Washington Post and Der Spiegel.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly denied that his country was involved in the pipeline explosions.

Call for proof

"I would never do that," he told the German daily Bild in June, saying he would "like to see proof".

The Washington Post said the sabotage operation was conceived while keeping Zelensky in the dark.

The Post and Der Spiegel said they had contacted the Ukrainian government for a reaction to their joint investigation, but had received no response.

Chervinsky is now on trial in Kyiv, accused of abusing his power in an attempt to get a Russian pilot to defect.

He says the prosecution is political retaliation for his criticism of Zelensky, according to media reports.

During a weekly briefing on Thursday, Russia's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Russia suspects that Western countries will not find those responsible for blasts that damaged the Nord Stream pipelines.

On the battlefield, Russia on Saturday launched a missile attack on Kyiv and the surrounding region for the first time in more than seven weeks and pounded the east and south of the country with drones, Ukrainian officials said.

Officials in the east, the focus of Russia's slow 20-month-old advance, said Ukrainian forces had repelled numerous attacks by Moscow's troops, and they said they expected further assaults, particularly around the devastated town of Avdiivka.

Serhii Popko, head of the Kyiv city military administration, said a Russian ballistic missile was launched toward the capital at about 8 am.

There were no casualties or major damage, he said.

There was no immediate response from the Kremlin.

Ruslan Kravchenko, regional governor for the central Kyiv region, said five houses and several commercial buildings in the area were damaged. Two Russian missiles struck a field between settlements, he said.

In the Black Sea port of Odesa, regional governor Oleh Kiper said the southern region was attacked with missiles and drones on Friday evening and overnight. The strikes wounded three people and damaged port infrastructure facilities, he said without offering further details.

Russia has intensified bombardments of Ukraine's ports, including Odesa, and grain infrastructure since Moscow in July pulled out of a deal to allow for exports from Ukrainian ports.

In Moscow, Russian authorities said on Saturday that they were investigating a possible act of terrorism after a goods train was derailed southwest of Moscow.

An "improvised explosive device "caused the derailment of 19 wagons on the train on Saturday, investigators said.

Agencies Via Xinhua