In Eastern Europe, there is a never-ending debate over who is responsible for attacks on critical infrastructure. Both Ukraine and Russia place the blame on the other. All the meantime, the rest of the world can only guess which country is to blame.
In September, explosions caused the shutdown of the Nord Stream pipelines. These pipelines transport Russian oil to European countries like Germany. Russian President Vladimir Putin faced accusations at the time of the explosions that he was using the country’s infrastructure as a bargaining tool in the conflict. But the troubled country blamed the United States and Ukraine. Months later, there are fresh claims that the US was forewarned of a possible attack, this time by Ukraine.
Intel Leak
Jack Teixeira, an Air National Guard member, published a trove of documents at the beginning of the year, one of which was an intelligence assessment on Europe. This report, like the others, found its way onto Discord and contained some really explosive information.
A report obtained by The Washington Post claims that one of the United States’ European partners gathered intelligence indicating that people within Ukraine were plotting an undersea attack in the Baltic Sea prior to the Nord Stream attacks. According to the source, General Valery Zaluzhny, the highest-ranking military commander in Ukraine, was in charge of the operation.
The European ally apparently informed the Central Intelligence Agency. Several months before the attacks ever happened, in June, the spy service issued a report to Germany and other European countries.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is said to have put Zaluzhny in charge of the attack to protect him. It was safer if he didn’t know much. After all, he’s out there pleading with nations like Germany and the United States for billions of dollars to counter Russia’s incursion.
When asked explicitly about the claims earlier this month, White House National Security Council coordinator John Kirby declined to comment. The attacks against Nord Stream are being investigated in Sweden, Germany, and Denmark, he said, so he wasn’t going to undermine the U.S. allies.
Dam
Another infrastructure failure coincides with reports of a suspected plot in Ukraine. The Kakhovka Dam in Ukraine’s Kherson province was blown up on June 6, about the same time the Nord Stream news emerged. People fled their homes when the river swamped the surrounding neighborhood.
One story claims that Ukraine’s former minister of ecology referred to it as the “worst ecological disaster since Chernobyl.” The blame for the attack on the Nord Stream pipeline is being passed back and forth. Meanwhile, the rest of the world watches in dismay.
