A Danish navy veteran with extensive diving experience has suggested to Bloomberg that the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage was likely carried out by “sophisticated naval forces” using fast-moving underwater drones.
The unmanned underwater vehicles were reportedly used by NATO forces during training exercises near the site of the explosions prior to the incident.
The former diver explained that locating the pipelines without accurate coordinates or tracking technology, and then transporting and placing the explosives, would have been extremely challenging for human diver-saboteurs.
The operation, including a safe ascent, would have taken an individual diver several hours, according to the navy veteran.
He hypothesized that the saboteurs used “a fast-moving autonomous submersible vehicle, like the ones employed by sophisticated naval forces.”
A surface vessel waiting for a dive team for several hours would have attracted unwanted attention, the diver added.
The Danish navy concurred with the diver’s hypothesis, stating that it would have been difficult for human divers to spend the necessary time to set up the attack at such a depth without being detected, Bloomberg notes.
The Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, designed to transport Russian natural gas directly to Germany, experienced a sudden loss of pressure on Sep 26 after a series of underwater explosions occurred off the Danish island of Bornholm, within the economic zones of Denmark and Sweden, RT explains.
Denmark is among five countries independently investigating the incidents, but has yet to share any findings.
