Nord Stream Sabotage Clues Found in Poland.

"German investigators are examining evidence that suggests a sabotage team used Poland, a European Union member and NATO ally, as an operating base to blow up the Nord Stream pipelines built to transport Russian gas through the Baltic Sea.

The probe by Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office is examining why the yacht they believe was used to carry out the operation journeyed into Polish waters. Other findings suggest Poland was a hub for the logistics and financing of last September's undersea sabotage attack that severed the strongest bond tying Berlin to Moscow. Poland, which is conducting its own inquiry, has struggled to learn what Germany is investigating.

German investigators have fully reconstructed the entire two-week long voyage of the Andromeda -- the 50-foot white pleasure yacht suspected of being involved in one of the biggest acts of sabotage on the continent since World War II -- and pinpointed that it deviated from its target to venture into Polish waters.

The previously unreported findings were pieced together with data from the Andromeda's radio and navigation equipment, as well as satellite and mobile phones and Gmail accounts used by the culprits -- and DNA samples left aboard, which Germany has tried to match to at least one Ukrainian soldier.

Taken together, the details show that the boat sailed around each of the locations where the blasts later took place -- evidence that fortified investigators' belief that the Andromeda was instrumental in last year's destruction of the pipeline. Investigators have concluded that one explosive used in the operation was HMX, also known as octogen, a colorless substance well-suited for demolishing underwater infrastructure.

German investigators say they also are looking into why the yacht was rented with the help of a travel agency based in Warsaw that appears to be part of a network of Ukrainian-owned front companies with suspected links to Ukrainian intelligence, according to people familiar with the investigation. And while recent findings appear to have strengthened the view of investigators that Ukrainians staged the plot, they also are examining whether Polish territory may have been used for the attack. Their probe also found that a white van -- sighted in a German port by security cameras and eye witnesses -- carried Polish license plates and was used to supply its crew, according to people familiar with the investigation.

Officials from both countries said Poland's government was kept in the dark about the investigation into the Andromeda's movements and crew and found out about it from media reports -- an unusual situation for two members of the EU, which shares legal instruments for conducting cross-border probes. After news about the boat broke, Polish authorities requested Germany provide more information. In mid-May -- five months after Berlin identified the Andromeda -- the two sides had what a Polish Justice Ministry official called a working meeting.

Investigators first found the yacht following an October tip-off from a western intelligence service. The information came from a person in Ukraine who gathers intelligence for a small European country. Officials in that European country have since questioned why bigger powers with extensive surveillance capabilities and personnel in Ukraine didn't get wind of the plot on their own or alert others if they did.

The probe could worsen tensions within NATO, further straining the relationship between Poland and Germany. Poland, like many of its neighbors as well as the U.S., opposed the Nord Stream pipelines, which they viewed as Russian President Vladimir Putin's geopolitical weapon to make Europe dependent on Russian energy.

A spokeswoman for the German federal prosecutor general, who leads the investigation, declined to comment on whether the probe expanded into Poland or whether Polish authorities were asked to help. Other German officials familiar with the investigation said they had no evidence Warsaw being involved in the plot.

Polish officials have acknowledged that the country's long Baltic coastline, its 320-mile border with Ukraine and its sizable population of Ukrainians offers obvious advantages for individuals staging such an operation. But these officials said the government played no role in the Nord Stream attack.

"I can assure you that no Polish institution is involved in this story," said a senior Polish national security official. "I cannot exclude that some Polish company or whatever is involved in this case."

Another senior Polish official said Warsaw's own more limited investigation hasn't identified a suspect. Polish officials have cast doubt that the Andromeda was involved in the operation, and continue to say Russia may have staged the attack to frame Ukraine.

Ushered into existence in 2011 by then German chancellor Angela Merkel, Nord Stream was a massive bet on cheap Russian gas. A second pipeline, Nord Stream 2, was built after the events in Crimea amid opposition by the U.S. and nearly all of Germany's eastern neighbors.

After events in Ukraine last year pressure from these countries helped push Berlin to shelve the project.

The underwater explosions on Sept. 26 tore apart three of the four main Nord Stream pipes. The blasts created vast bubbling geysers in the Baltic Sea that eventually released more greenhouse gas into the atmosphere than the entire annual emissions of Denmark.

Since then, investigators from Germany, Sweden and Denmark and other Western allies have sought to figure out who was behind the attack and how it was carried out. Unlike with Poland, Germany has closely cooperated with those and other nations while conducting the probe.

They have classified their investigations, with German officials reminded that under law, they could face jail time for leaking details.

This account is based on interviews with security officials in seven European nations and a reconstruction of the yacht's voyage from last September.

On Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv didn't attack the pipeline, and that he would never have ordered it." [1]

Zelensky is pretending to be an idiot, he asked not to tell him about such crimes. So Zelensky can deny everything with ease, and pretend to be a best friend of Germany.

1. Nord Stream Sabotage Clues Found in Poland. Pancevski, Bojan; Hinshaw, Drew;
Parkinson, Joe.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 10 June 2023: A.1.