COPENHAGEN — Explosions were recorded before
mysterious leaks in two Baltic Sea gas pipelines linking Russia and
Europe,
seismologists said Tuesday, raising suspicions of sabotage amid tensions over
Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
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Photos taken by the Danish military showed large
masses of bubbles on the surface of the water emanating from the three leaks in
Sweden and Denmark’s economic zones north of Poland, from 200m to 1,000m in
diameter.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that
while the details of what happened were not yet known, “we see clearly that
it’s an act of sabotage, one that probably marks the next step of escalation of
the situation in Ukraine”.
Danish Prime Minister
Mette Frederiksen meanwhile
said it was “hard to imagine that it’s accidental”.
The Swedish National Seismic Network recorded two
“massive releases of energy” shortly before the gas leaks near their locations
off the coast of the Danish island of Bornholm, Uppsala University seismologist
Peter Schmidt told AFP.
“With energy releases this big there isn’t much else
than a blast that could cause it,” he added. “You can see that they are quite
sudden. It is a very sudden energy release. It’s not a slow collapse of
something.”
Russia said earlier that it was “extremely
concerned” about the leaks. Asked by reporters whether it could be an act of
sabotage, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that at the moment “it is
impossible to exclude any options”.
Ukraine, however, pointed the finger directly at
Moscow, saying it was “nothing more than a terrorist attack planned by Russia
and an act of aggression towards the EU”.
A White House official said the US would not
speculate on the cause but was ready to support European efforts to investigate
the leaks.
The Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines have been at the
center of geopolitical tensions in recent months as Russia cut gas supplies to
Europe in suspected retaliation against Western sanctions following its
invasion of Ukraine.
While the pipelines — operated by a consortium
majority-owned by Russian gas giant Gazprom — are not currently in operation,
they both still contain gas.
One of the leaks on Nord Stream 1 occurred in the
Danish economic zone and the other in the Swedish economic zone, while the Nord
Stream 2 leak was in the Danish economic zone.
A leak was first reported on
Nord Stream 2 on
Monday.
Danish climate and energy minister Dan Jorgensen
confirmed the two Nord Stream 1 leaks in a statement to AFP on Tuesday.
“It is too early to say anything about the causes of
the incidents,” the Danish Ministry of Climate, Energy, and Utilities said in a
statement.
Two Danish military vessels have been dispatched to
the area, while Sweden’s government called an emergency meeting to be held on
Tuesday evening.
Navigational warnings have been issued for a
distance of five nautical miles and a flight height of 1,000m.
‘Extremely rare’
“Gas pipeline leaks are
extremely rare and we therefore see a reason to increase the level of
preparedness following the incidents we have witnessed over the past 24 hours,”
Danish Energy Agency director Kristoffer Bottzauw said in a statement.
The European Commission said it was too early to
speculate on the causes of the leaks.
“We believe we do
not have the elements in order to determine what is the reason for the leak.
And obviously any act of sabotage on any infrastructure is something that we
would condemn,” commission spokesman
Eric Mamer told reporters.
A Nord Stream spokesperson told AFP they had not
been able to assess the damage but conceded that “an incident where three pipes
experience difficulties at the same time on the same day is not common.”
‘Targeted attack’
Built in parallel to the
Nord Stream 1 pipeline, Nord Stream 2 was intended to double the capacity for
Russian gas imports to Germany.
But Berlin blocked newly-completed Nord Stream 2 in
the days before the war.
Germany, which has been highly dependent on imports
of fossil fuels from Russia to meet its energy needs, has since come under
acute stress as Moscow’s supplies dwindle.
Russian energy giant
Gazprom progressively reduced
the volumes of gas being delivered via Nord Stream 1 until it shut the pipeline
completely at the end of August, blaming Western sanctions for the delay of
necessary repairs to the pipeline.
Germany has rebuffed Gazprom’s technical explanation
for the cut, instead accusing Moscow of wielding energy as a weapon amid
tensions over the war in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, German daily Tagesspiegel reported that
the leaks might be the result of “targeted attacks”.
“We cannot imagine a scenario that is not a targeted
attack,” a source close to the government and relevant authorities was quoted
as saying in the newspaper.
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