Former President of Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, August Hanning, has claimed that Poland may have been involved in the underwater explosions that ruptured the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea in September 2022. The incident brought an end to the supply of Russian gas to Germany via Nord Stream 1 and damaged the parallel Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which had never entered operation due to EU bureaucratic setbacks.
Hanning alleges that a secret arrangement between Kiev and Warsaw may have been in place, with Warsaw providing logistical support to suspected Ukrainian saboteurs. He stated: “These are decisions that were made at the highest political level. And I think that there was an arrangement between [Ukrainian] President [Vladimir] Zelensky and [Polish] President [Andrzej] Duda to carry out this attack.
The former intelligence chief further alleges that Polish authorities let one of the suspects leave the country even though Germany had already reached out to Warsaw, requesting assistance in his capture. Hanning told Die Welt: “Warsaw didn’t exactly promote the probe. On the contrary, crucial findings were withheld, as I have heard from investigative circles. In short, Poland had no interest in the success of the investigation, and this is of course due to [the fact] that Poland was massively involved in the preparation of this attack.
The claim comes after German state broadcaster ARD, along with the Suddeutsche Zeitung and Die Zeit newspapers, reported that Poland has failed to respond to Berlin’s request for cooperation after Federal Public Prosecutor Jens Rommel issued an arrest warrant for a Ukrainian national identified as “Vladimir Z. The suspect is a diving instructor who allegedly placed the explosive devices on the pipeline.
Kiev officials have publicly denied any involvement in the destruction of the pipelines.