Russian ships were near the “Nord Streams” shortly before the explosions
3.05.2023 - 13:10
In June, russian ships visited the site of the explosion of the Nord Stream gas pipeline at least three times. One of them moved near the object 5 days before the incident.
In one of the cases, a russian ship remained near the site of the explosion for almost a day, reports Yle.
Russian ships were moving in the area with their AIS turned off. However, Scandinavian journalists were able to track the ships’ movements by radio communication. The information was also verified using satellite images.
According to experts, the results of the observation are a significant addition to the understanding of the events preceding the explosion on the “Nord Stream”.
The russian radio communication was monitored by a British naval intelligence officer who, until a few years ago, worked, among other things, on monitoring the russian Baltic Fleet.
The first ship was spotted near the gas pipelines on the morning of June 7, leaving the naval base in Kaliningrad and arriving in an area southeast of Karlskrona and east of Bornholm. For several hours, the ship was in the exact place where the branches of the “Nord Streams” pass at a depth of 80 m. The name of the ship is not specified.
The second vessel, “Sibiryakov”, arrived in the area on June 14, and was near or almost above the pipelines. Sometimes it moved at a very low speed. Satellite images suggest that the ship was a couple of hundred meters away from one of the explosion sites. Another vessel can be seen in the pictures, which was also moving with AIS turned off, but it was not possible to accurately identify it.
Despite the fact that the NATO BALTOPS 22 exercise was taking place in the Baltic Sea at the time, the journalists did not find any units that would be close enough to the area of future explosions to notice the russian “ghost ships”.
Also, on September 21, a tugboat of the russian Baltic Fleet SB-123 was spotted near the pipelines. Presumably, he could also be involved in the incident. SB-123 turned off the transponder on the way from Kaliningrad to the area of the “Nord Streams”.
Journalists with the received data turned to the embassy of russian federation in Copenhagen, but did not receive any comments.
Read also: Danish Navy: a Russian ship was near the site of the Nord Stream explosion
