Polish leader urges Nord Stream customers to ‘keep quiet’ as pipeline mystery comes to light again

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk reacted Saturday to reports that revived questions about who He blew up the Nord Stream gas pipelines In 2022, Polish President Vladimir Putin said the initiators of the pipeline project should “apologise and keep quiet.” That comment came after one of his deputies denied the claim that Warsaw was partly responsible for its damage.

The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Ukrainian authorities were responsible for blowing up the Nord Stream 1 and 2 oil pipelines in September 2022, a dramatic act of sabotage that cut off Germany from a key source of energy and worsened an energy crisis in Europe.

Germany was Russia’s partner in the pipeline project. Poland has long claimed that its own security interests have been harmed by Nord Stream.

“To all the initiators and sponsors of Nord Stream 1 and 2, the only thing you should do today is apologize and keep quiet,” Tusk wrote on social media portal X on Saturday.

Tusk appeared to be reacting specifically to a claim by a former head of Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, the BND, August Hanning, who told German daily Die Welt that the attack on the Nord Stream gas pipelines must have been supported by Poland. Hanning said Germany should consider seeking compensation from Poland and Ukraine.

Hanning, who has retired from his post as spy chief, did not present any evidence to support his claim. Some observers pointed out that he worked under former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who later worked for Russian state energy companies including Nord Stream.

Krzysztof Gawkowski, Poland’s deputy prime minister and minister for digital affairs, strongly denied reports that Poland and Ukraine had damaged the Nord Stream gas pipeline in an interview on broadcaster Polsat on Friday.

Gawkowski said the former German intelligence officer’s comments were “inspired by Moscow” and aimed at destabilising NATO countries.

“I think this is the sound of Russian disinformation,” he added.

On Wednesday, Polish prosecutors confirmed that they had received an arrest warrant for a Ukrainian man wanted by Germany as a suspect in the pipeline attack, but that he left the country before he could be arrested.

The Nord Stream project, with its two pipelines designed to transport gas from Russia to Europe along the bed of the Baltic Sea, went ahead despite opposition from Poland, the United States and Ukraine.

They allowed Russia to ship gas directly to Western Europe, bypassing Poland and Ukraine. Since all gas had previously been transported by land, Warsaw and kyiv feared losing huge sums in transit fees and the political clout that came with controlling gas transports.

The Wall Street Journal said in its report published Thursday that it spoke to four senior Ukrainian defense and security officials who were involved in the plot or had direct knowledge of it. All of them said the pipelines were a legitimate target in Ukraine’s defense war against Russia. Ukrainian officials deny these allegations.

Nord Stream 1 was completed and operational in 2011. Nord Stream 2 was not completed until autumn 2021, but never went into operation due to Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.