A few days before the gas leaks on the Nord Streams, two vessels with their trackers turned off were passing through the pipeline zone.
Wired writes about it.
Two large ships, each between 95 and 130 meters long, passed within a few miles of the gas leak. The company SpaceKnow, which analyzed the array of satellite images, said that these ships purposefully tried to hide their location and route.
Specialists managed to identify these vessels, but they have not yet been publicly named. SpaceKnow passed the information on to NATO officials investigating the pipeline incidents.
- On September 26, in one day, the Russians recorded a drop in pressure at once on two of their gas pipelines to Europe — on "Nord Stream" and "Nord Stream — 2", which were never put into operation. Both gas pipelines are almost not working and are not pumping gas from Russia to Europe. "Nord Stream — 2" was never launched due to the invasion of Russian troops into Ukraine, but "Nord Stream" was almost completely stopped in the summer allegedly due to problems found. Initially, three gas leaks were recorded on the pipelines, and already on September 29, Sweden reported a fourth leak.
- The countries of the EU, the USA and NATO believe that the pipelines were sabotaged. Seismologists said that they recorded underwater explosions in the leakage zones.
- The Times newspaper, citing sources in British intelligence, wrote that the "Nord Streams" attacked Russian underwater drones. CNN reported that on September 26 and 27, Russian military supply ships and submarines were seen near the leakage zones. Russiaʼs involvement is under investigation. In the Russian Federation itself, traditionally, all accusations are rejected.
- Gas leaks from Nord Stream 2 stopped on October 1, and from "Nord Stream 1" on October 2. On October 6, the Swedish special services found confirmation of sabotage.