Western media is reporting that the CIA told its Belgian counterparts that Ukrainian forces were responsible for the destruction of the Nord Stream gas pipelines last September.
“Shortly after the attack, our military intelligence agency ADIV received strictly confidential information that pointed to Ukraine's likely role in sabotage,” a mainstream Belgian newspaper wrote Saturday.
The publication said it “learned from well-informed sources that our military intelligence service then 'got a visit' from the American intelligence service CIA.”
The story “illustrates how Western intelligence agencies, including the Belgian ones, have been aware for months that Ukraine is believed to have a hand in one of the most brutal and dangerous attacks on European energy infrastructure itself,” the outlet wrote.
The newspaper wrote that the CIA was apparently unwilling to reveal where it obtained the information in question, citing the desire to protect their sources.
The suggestion of Kiev’s involvement “could have put the alliance with Ukraine under” stress, according to the publication, which noted that Germany was “dependent on Russian natural gas” before Moscow’s special military operation “and both the French Engie, the Dutch Gasunie and the German Wintershall together with the Russian Gazprom invested in Nord Stream 1.”
In public, the US continued to blame Moscow for the destruction of the Russo-German pipelines well after the CIA reportedly advised its colleagues at European intelligence agencies that Ukraine was actually responsible.
US media reported this week that the US received detailed information about supposed Ukrainian plans to destroy the Nord Stream pipelines last June, several months before the sabotage was carried out.
According to this theory, Ukrainian forces involved “received orders from Valery Zaluzhny, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces,” a theory which conveniently leaves the Ukrainian president “ignorant and able to continue to deny his involvement,” the Belgian publication explained.