The CIA reportedly warned its German counterpart, the Bundesnachrichtendienst, better known as BND, about a potential attack on the Nord Stream pipelines months before an attack was carried out in late 2022.
Citing anonymous intelligence officials, the Wall Street Journal, reported that the warnings were sent by the CIA in June and July of 2022, months before the pipeline exploded in an apparent sabotage in September.
News articles at the time stated Western intelligence agencies thought Russia was behind the attack but recent reports, also citing anonymous sources, say that an unidentified pro-Ukrainian group was behind the attack.
The warning reportedly stated three Ukrainian nationals were attempting to rent ships in countries that border the Baltic Sea, where the Nord Stream pipelines connect Russia and Germany.
The Journal reported that senior US officials, including CIA Chief William Burns and national security adviser Jake Sullivan, were considering the possibility that Ukraine was behind the attack as early as October, but did not say what that assessment was based on, or if it was related to the pro-Ukrainian group that allegedly attacked the pipelines.
Ukrainian senior officials denied its government had anything to do with the attack on the pipeline. “Although I enjoy collecting amusing conspiracy theories about [Ukraine] government,” Mykhailo Podolyak, the top adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Twitter. “I have to say: [Ukraine] has nothing to do with the Baltic Sea mishap and has no information about "pro-[Ukrainian] sabotage groups."
Podolyak continues to blame Russia for the attack on Twitter, implying in a later tweet that Russia benefited from the attack.
Also in October, Germany’s federal prosecutor general Peter Frank said he had no evidence Russia was involved. German media later claimed the incident was carried out by six people of unknown national origin who hired a yacht from a company registered in Poland and owned by two Ukrainian citizens.
Russia has blamed the attack on the UK and the US at different times. Xavier Moreau, an arms expert and geopolitical analyst from the French think tank Stratpol told Sputnik he finds reports that the attacks were carried out by a group of people unaffiliated with any government “ridiculous.”
Moreau says reports are designed to divert attention away from accusations that Washington carried out the attack, noting that the United States is one of the few countries that would have had the means to carry out the clandestine sabotage.
Five-time George Polk Award and one-time Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh reported prior to the pro-Ukrainian theory first, detailing in early February how US Navy divers had allegedly planted explosives along the pipeline under the cover of the Baltops 2022 NATO exercises.
The CIA has declined to comment on the reports.