Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi, on Tuesday afternoon spoke about Kyiv’s first reaction to the explosions that caused a natural gas leak from the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea, Ukrainian Pravda reports.

“The large-scale gas leak from NS-1 is nothing more than a terrorist act planned by Russia and an act of aggression against the EU,” Podolyak wrote on his Twitter page.

“The Russian Federation wants to destabilize the economic situation in Europe and cause panic before winter,” he said, adding that the best response to such actions by Moscow is “tanks for Ukraine, especially German ones.”

His comments came after seismologists in Denmark, Sweden and Germany said earlier in the day that they had detected strong explosions in areas where the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines were damaged.

“There is no doubt that these were explosions,” seismologist Bjord Lund told Swedish public television.

The Danish military released a video and several photos on Tuesday showing what appeared to be explosions on the surface of the water.

Neither of the two Nord Stream gas pipelines was operating at the time of the explosions

On Tuesday morning, the Swedish Maritime Administration was the first to announce the discovery of two natural gas leaks on Nord Stream 1 and another on Nord Stream 2.

Neither of the two gas pipelines was operational at the time of the explosions. In early September, Gazprom suspended supplies via Nord Stream 1 indefinitely, citing a problem with one of the pipeline’s main turbines.

The permit for the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline was suspended by the German authorities on February 22 due to fears related to the gathering of Russian troops on the border with Ukraine.

Only two days later, the first Russian troops entered Ukraine.

On the same topic:

• LIVE Strong explosions around Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea / Operator reports “unprecedented” damages / Suspicion of sabotage