Germany is right very bad for the European support of Ukraine also not to become clean sooner with your partners.
Did Zelensky have a role in Nord Stream sabotage? 'This cannot remain without consequences'
The Wall Street Journal's revelation that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky knew about the plan to blow up the Nord Stream gas pipeline between Russia and Germany is causing tension among allies Kyiv and Berlin. Germany is the second largest supplier of financial and military aid to Ukraine after the US. Aid that is much debated in Germany.
After the sabotage of the pipeline - a German-Russian billion-dollar project - at the end of September 2022, Germany and other European countries were plunged into an energy crisis: the gas supply stopped, with major economic, political and financial consequences. The fact that the man - who the German government considers its greatest friend - was possibly behind it, is grist to the mill of pro-Russian parties in Germany.
That is what Otto Fricke, member of parliament for the ruling Free Democratic Party (FDP), says. "They will say that we have to stop supporting Ukraine." He is therefore concerned about the support for support for Ukraine, support that has always been controversial in Germany. "There are elections coming up in three important East German states where, according to polls, the coalition will only get 13 percent of the votes. The most popular parties there are pro-Russian."
After the sabotage, Germany wanted to get to the bottom of things, and now it has. The consequences are hard to estimate, says Fricke. "This cannot remain without consequences, of course, but the biggest mistake we can make is to react too quickly. Parliament will want to know: who knew what at what time?" And that will change opinions, Fricke expects. As the Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote earlier : "Can you continue to support a country that has blown up a significant part of your own energy infrastructure with millions of euros for defense?"
Alcohol The story is embarrassing for several governments. For example, the Dutch intelligence service MIVD also plays an important role in the whole story of the sabotage. That service heard about the plan and informed the American CIA, as was revealed last summer by research by the NOS, Nieuwsuur and German media. But if the MIVD was the first to know about the plans, did they also know that Zelensky agreed first?
PVV leader Geert Wilders, who criticizes the financial and military support for Ukraine, and NSC leader Pieter Omtzigt want all the details on the table. According to Wilders, it "cannot remain without consequences" if Ukraine was indeed behind it. It is now up to the Schoof cabinet to come up with text and explanation.
The American newspaper The Wall Street Journal today released even more details in an extensive reconstruction. For example, the Ukrainian commander Valery Zaluzhny is said to have pushed through the plan against Zelensky's wishes.
The newspaper writes that the plan was hatched at a party attended by several high-ranking Ukrainian military and businessmen. An evening where alcohol flowed freely. "This happened in the early phase of the war. In the phase when both the military command and the civilian command had incredibly busy days," says Bojan Pancevski, the journalist behind the revelation.
"They thought: we can stop Vladimir Putin's income with the sabotage. So that he can't use the money from the gas trade for his war machine. And of course they said: okay, let's do it, it sounds good. That's exactly what happened."
Sailboat Pancevski bases his claim on an officer who was directly involved in the attack. In addition, the newspaper cites three other sources who were aware of the operation. "One of them was directly involved, a military officer. The other is a military security officer. The third is a high-ranking civilian government official. All three are high-ranking Ukrainian officers," the journalist told Nieuwsuur .
That the perpetrators come from Ukraine was also previously shown by the investigation by Nieuwsuur and NOS , among others . That reconstruction showed how a group of six visited various ports around the Baltic Sea using a rented sailboat. The sailboat was rented using a Ukrainian e-mail address in the name of a 28-year-old man from Mariupol.
Zaluzhny was dismissed earlier this year on the grounds that Zelensky wanted to revive the Ukrainian armed forces. Zaluzhny has since been appointed ambassador to London. He denies any involvement.
