Poland denies involvement in Nord Stream sabotage

A Polish deputy prime minister on Friday denied his country’s involvement in the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea in September 2022.

“Poland did not take part in anything. It has to be said clearly that this is a lie,” the minister, Krzysztof Gawkowski, told TV channel Polsat News.

Gawkowski was speaking after former German intelligence chief August Hanning, who held the post between 1998 and 2005, accused Poland of working with Ukraine on the sabotage.

Kyiv has also strongly denied any role.

“It looks like it was a Ukrainian team that acted, according to the results of the investigation,” Hanning said in an interview with the Die Welt daily.

“It is quite obvious that Polish authorities were involved,” he said, calling for Germany to demand compensation from Kyiv and Warsaw.

Gawkowski firmly denied the accusation.

“I think this is Russian disinformation resonating through the words of German politicians,” he said.

“Either they are acting under the influence” of Moscow “or they know that this will lead to divisions between NATO member states,” he said.

Polish prosecutors on Wednesday told AFP they had received an arrest warrant issued by Berlin for a Ukrainian diver residing in Poland accused of involvement in the blasts.

But Warsaw said he left the country before he could be detained.

On Thursday, Ukraine said the accusation of its involvement was “absolute nonsense” after a detailed report in the Wall Street Journal.

Nord Stream’s twin gas pipelines, which ran from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea, came under intense scrutiny when Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Several large gas leaks were discovered emanating from the pipelines in September 2022, with seismic institutes recording underwater explosions just before.