Dog Ate My Nord Stream: German Media Doubles Down on Ukrainian Connection Claim

This week, one German magazine presented an account that looks more like a Cold War spy thriller script, detailing an alleged effort by Ukrainian saboteurs to take out Nord Stream.

- The entire operation, codenamed “Diameter” was supposedly carried out by 12 people: 11 men and one woman who was included to help disguise the team as a tourist group

- Five of the group’s members were divers, selected from some 20 candidates

- The bombs – diving tanks loaded with octogen and hexogen explosives - were planted on the seams to ensure maximum damage to the pipelines

- The entire budget of this operation was only $300,000, allegedly donated by some entrepreneur “close to the Ukrainian special forces”

- The plan of this operation was ostensibly presented to Gen. Valery Zaluzhny then-chief of Ukraine’s army, who supposedly liked it so much that he suggested carrying out a similar terrorist act against the TurkStream natural gas pipeline that runs from Russia to Turkiye under the Black Sea. No details of this second operation are provided, save for that it failed

- Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky was allegedly unaware of this entire scheme

- The US purportedly learned of the Ukrainian terrorists’ plan in June 2022, three months before the Nord Stream attack, and demanded that it be called off, to no avail.

In other words, this narrative portrays the US leadership and Zelensky as blameless and pins the blame on a small group of rogue Ukrainian operative, which is very convenient for the US and Ukraine, not to mention Germany who needs to avoid making any uncomfortable discoveries in the Nord Stream affair.