On the morning of 26 September last year, unusual seismic activity was detected in a patch of the Baltic Sea near Denmark. Soon after, Danish authorities issued a warning to passing ships. Underwater plumes of gas were appearing in different places and forming giant areas of bubbles on the ocean’s surface. Some stretched 700 metres (2,300ft) across.
As the Guardian’s defence editor, Dan Sabbagh, tells Michael Safi, submarines were sent to investigate and quickly found the source of the leaks: deliberate explosions – sabotage.
The question of who blew up the Nord Stream pipelines has been an international mystery, with the first concrete clues emerging last week of who is suspected to have carried it out: a small group of highly trained individuals believed to be pro-Ukrainians. For its part, Ukraine’s government has denied any involvement in the sabotage. What do the new reports suggest about the incident? And could it have been a ‘false flag’ operation?
Photograph: DANISH DEFENCE/AFP/Getty Images
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