Four bombs used: New details emerge about Nord Stream blasts
Illustrative photo: Nord Stream 2 (Getty Images)
The Russian Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 pipelines were sabotaged in 2022 using four bombs containing a mixture of powerful explosives. Ukrainian authorities are suspected of leading the operation, Tagesschau reports.
In early September 2022, the rented sailing yacht Andromeda departed from the port of Wiek on the island of Rügen. Allegedly on board was a sabotage team consisting of a leader, an explosives expert, and four divers.
A total of four explosive devices, weighing between 14 and 27 kilograms each, were used to damage the pipelines. Each device contained a mixture of two powerful substances, RDX (hexogen) and HMX (octogen), and was fitted with delayed-action detonators.
The explosives were placed at depths of 70–80 meters. After the operation, one team member allegedly went ashore in Wiek, while the others returned the yacht to the rental port in Hohe Düne near Warnemünde and handed it back to the owners.
Nord Stream explosion
The explosions occurred on September 26, 2022, seriously damaging both pipelines and rendering them inoperable. Investigations were conducted by multiple countries, but the perpetrators have not been definitively identified.
Media reports noted that days before the incident, the Andromeda, rented by a Polish company owned by two Ukrainian citizens, was operating near the pipeline route.
On August 21, the reports indicated that a Ukrainian citizen had been detained in Italy, suspected by German authorities of organizing the explosions. He is a 49-year-old former military officer, Serhiy Kuznetsov.
Kuznetsov, accused of involvement in the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage in the Baltic Sea, told a court in Bologna that he does not agree to extradition to Germany and rejects all charges from the German government.
