The Danish military has published a video of gas leaking from Russia's Nord Stream pipeline into the Baltic Sea due to a breakdown that was reported by the pipeline’s operator on Monday.
The 24-second clip shows what looks like a huge stain on the sea’s surface visibly expanding in dimensions.
The footage comes as Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov addressed the Nord Stream pipeline leak on Tuesday, noting that an investigation is underway and no cause can be ruled out, including possible sabotage.
“It is obvious that there is some kind of destruction of the pipeline, and what caused it? Before the results of the probe are in, we cannot exclude any option,” Peskov said when asked if sabotage may be behind the incident.
This followed the operator Nord Stream AG telling Sputnik on Monday that a landfall dispatcher had registered a rapid gas pressure drop on line A of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. The incident occurred in Danish waters near the island of Bornholm.
Later that day, the operator also said that a pressure drop had been registered on both strings of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline and that the incident is already being investigated. The company also informed that the destruction is "unprecedented" adding that it is unclear how much time the repair work will take.
In response, Denmark has established a five-nautical-mile security zone at the scene after the emergency.
The work of the pipeline, which remains filled with gas, has been suspended since the end of August due to problems with the repair of turbines caused by western sanctions slapped on Russia in response to its ongoing special military operation in Ukraine.
As the main gas supply route to Europe, the 1,224-kilometre (760 miles) Nord Stream is designed to deliver blue fuel through the Baltic Sea from the entry point in Russia's Vyborg to the exit point in Germany's Lubmin, with the capacity standing at 55 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year.