WARSAW, Poland (AP) – Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk responded Saturday to reports that raised questions about who blew up the Nord Stream pipelines in 2022 and said the initiators of the gas pipeline project should “apologize and keep quiet”. This comment came after one of his deputies rejected the claim that Warsaw was partly responsible for the damage.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that Ukrainian authorities were responsible for blowing up the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines in September 2022, a dramatic act of sabotage that cut Germany off from a key energy source and exacerbated Europe’s energy crisis.
Germany was Russia’s partner in the pipeline project. Poland has long stated that its own security interests would be compromised by Nord Stream.
“To all initiators and supporters of Nord Stream 1 and 2. The only thing you should do today is apologize and be silent,” Tusk wrote on the social media portal X on Saturday.
Tusk was apparently responding specifically to a claim by the former head of Germany’s foreign intelligence service BND, August Hanning, who had told the German daily Die Welt that the attack on the Nord Stream gas pipelines must have been supported by Poland. Hanning said Germany should consider demanding compensation from Poland and Ukraine.
Hanning, who has resigned from his post as intelligence chief, did not provide any evidence to support his claim. Some observers pointed out that he served under former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who later worked for Russian state-owned energy companies, including Nord Stream.
Krzysztof Gawkowski, Poland’s deputy prime minister and minister for digital affairs, strongly rejected reports in an interview with Polsat broadcaster on Friday that Poland and Ukraine had damaged the Nord Stream gas pipeline.
Gawkowski claimed that the former German intelligence officer’s comments were “inspired by Moscow” and aimed at destabilizing NATO countries.
“I think this is the sound of Russian disinformation,” he added.
On Wednesday, Polish prosecutors confirmed that they had received an arrest warrant against a Ukrainian wanted by Germany as a suspect in connection with the pipeline attack, but that he had left the country before he could be arrested.
The Nord Stream project, in which two pipelines along the Baltic Sea floor will transport gas from Russia to Europe, has been pushed forward despite opposition from Poland, the USA and Ukraine.
They allowed Russia to deliver gas directly to Western Europe, bypassing Poland and Ukraine. Since all gas had previously been transported overland, Warsaw and Kyiv feared losing huge amounts of transit fees and political influence associated with controlling gas shipments.
The Wall Street Journal, in its report published Thursday, said it had spoken to four senior Ukrainian defense and security officials who were either involved in the plot or had direct knowledge of it. All said the pipelines were a legitimate target in Ukraine’s defensive war against Russia. Ukrainian authorities deny those claims.
Nord Stream 1 was completed and went online in 2011. Nord Stream 2 was only completed in autumn 2021, but was never able to become operational due to Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
