And the chapel, too, or how Russia is trying to weaken international support for Ukraine

Exclusive. Separate media in Germany and the United States have once again published versions of Ukraine's alleged involvement in the detonation of the Nord Streams.

Head of Gazprom, Alexey Miller

Let us remind you that in September 2022, seven months after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, explosions occurred on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines, which supply gas to the bottom of the Baltic Sea. By that time, "SP-2" had not been launched, and "SP-1" was stopped by Russia with reference to the alleged impossibility of technical maintenance of the infrastructure under the conditions of sanctions as part of gas blackmail. It is possible that the Kremlin decided to aggravate the energy crisis in Europe and sow panic before winter in such an uncomplicated way.

In particular, The Wall Street Journal released an investigation into how Kyiv was allegedly preparing an operation to blow up the Nord Stream gas pipelines at the bottom of the Baltic Sea in September 2022. According to the publication, the president of Ukraine approved the detonation, but then unsuccessfully tried to cancel the operation when the CIA found out about it.

Journalists claim that the idea to blow up gas pipelines was born in May 2022 at a meeting of high-ranking Ukrainian military and businessmen. The latter financed sabotage, since the Armed Forces of Ukraine lacked funds. After the incident, as the WSJ writes, Zelensky reported to the then Chief Commissar of the Armed Forces Valery Zaluzhny, but he stated that it was impossible to contact the sabotage group and recall it, because any contact could put the operation in jeopardy.

Ukraine is not involved in the sabotage of the Nord Streams in the Baltic Sea. Versions in the media are based on dubious anonymous sources and are unrealistic from a technical point of view. So I want to ask classically, excuse me, did we... destroy the chapel too?

"Such an act can be carried out only if there are extensive technical and financial resources... and who owned all this at the time of the explosions? Only Russia," the adviser to the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine commented to the agency Reuters statement that Ukrainian officials are allegedly involved in the incidents.

Russia, which has its own fleet with special deep-sea equipment in the Baltic Sea, had sufficient technical resources for such an operation. For example, the Chinese authorities recently admitted that their container ship damaged the Balticconnector gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia last fall. Dossier Center previously pointed to the close connection of the company — the ship's owner — with Russia. In particular, both the owner and the charterer of NewNew Polar Bear - through a chain of companies - belong to the Chinese Shanghai Leguoke Supply Chain, and its owner is businessman Fan Yuxin. He has close ties with Russia. For example, the company "Torgmall" owned by him supplied medical masks for the Federal Tax Service in the Moscow region, as well as for the administration of the city of Shakhovskaya near Moscow.

It became known about the damage to the gas pipeline on October 8. The network gas production company Gasgrid Finland stated that "there are reasons to suspect that the cause of the incident is damage to the marine gas pipeline." Based on this, a decision was made to isolate a section of the gas pipeline. Gas supplies on it were suspended. As the publication wrote Evening paper, the Finnish Ministry of Defense suspected that the cause of the accident was sabotage, which could have been committed by Russia.

These are not the first "injections" into the media about Ukraine's alleged involvement in sabotage. It is already noticeable that each appearance of such publications is not accidental, but synchronized with demands will weaken the international support of our country. In particular, if we are talking about the last "incident", then it occurred against the background of the intensification of hostilities, including in the Kursk and other border regions of the Russian Federation.

Right now, the administration of US President Joe Biden admits that Ukraine can get long-range cruise missiles, writes Politico with reference to sources. We are talking about air-launched munitions that can be launched from F-16 fighters at a distance of more than 300 km — JASSM missiles. The Pentagon is already working with Ukraine on technical issues. Among the other long-range missiles that Kyiv received from the West are ATACMS, Storm Shadow, Scalp, which are ground-based systems. Great Britain's ministers are also convincing the allies that it is necessary to allow Ukraine to strike the territory of Russia with Storm Shadow cruise missiles with a range of up to 250 km, writes The Times.

All this and much more is bad news for Russia, which is making every effort to disrupt decisions and deliveries.

Vera Perovskaya