Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi on Friday denied any involvement in his country’s bombings that damaged the Nord Stream gas pipeline last September, after the US New York Times and Germany’s Die Zeit wrote that they called the new US data. The special services claim that the author of the sabotage is a “pro-Ukrainian group”, reports EFE and Agerpres.

“We have nothing to do with this,” Zelensky answered a question addressed to him on this topic at a joint press conference in Kyiv with the head of the Finnish government, Sanna Marin.

In addition, Zelensky signaled that the appearance of such “disinformation” could be aimed at “slowing down aid to Ukraine” from Western countries in the war started by Russia.

“I think it is very dangerous that some independent mass media, which I have always treated with great respect, are taking such steps,” the Ukrainian president complained. “I believe that this is a mistake, and it only benefits the Russian Federation” or some “economic groups that are interested in not imposing severe sanctions” against Russia, Zelenskyi continued. He did not specify which groups he was talking about, noting only that these are those that may be affected by sanctions and “may also be outside the territory of Russia.”

And Moscow blames “coordinated drunkenness”

Even Moscow does not believe the theory spread by the New York Times and Die Zeit. “It is obvious that this is a coordinated poisoning of the mass media,” Kremlin press secretary Dmytro Peskov said on Wednesday, assessing that only a state entity would be able to carry out a sabotage operation on underwater pipelines.

For his part, former Russian President Dmytro Medvedev called the idea that a pro-Ukrainian group unrelated to anyone could blow up these pipelines “ignorant American propaganda.” “They must have been lone fighters against the damned Muscovites. Some infamous bastards are saving the world. They dived into the sea, blew up two huge pipes at the bottom of the sea and disappeared at sunset. Not observed. In a sea full of NATO ships and international surveillance systems,” Medvedev wrote in Telegram.

According to another theory, floated in February by American investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, US Navy divers with the help of Norway planted explosive devices on the pipes in June and detonated them three months later. The White House classified the journalist’s statements as “complete lies” and “pure fiction.”

After becoming president of the United States, Joe Biden vainly pressured Germany to abandon the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project, built to allow Germany and Europe to import more Russian gas. Finally, this pipeline and Nord Stream 1 became unusable last September after being damaged by those mysterious explosions.

Read also:

• NYT: pro-Ukrainian group suspected of sabotaging the Nord Stream gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea
• Kyiv declares its “absolute non-involvement” in the attacks on Nord Stream / How Russia reacted to the New York Times information
• Die Zeit: “Ukrainian special forces” carried out a “secret operation” to sabotage the Nord Stream gas pipelines
• A false flag operation? What Germany says after the emergence of new information about the explosions on the Nord Stream gas pipelines
• The Kremlin claims that they do not believe in the existence of “Dr. Evil” proukr

___

• Follow the latest events of the war in Ukraine LIVETEXT on HotNews.ro