Ukrainian military officer coordinated Nord Stream pipeline attack

[former9thward]

A senior Ukrainian military officer with deep ties to the country’s intelligence services played a central role in the bombing of the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline last year, according to officials in Ukraine and elsewhere in Europe, as well as other people knowledgeable about the details of the covert operation.

The officer’s role provides the most direct evidence to date tying Ukraine’s military and security leadership to a controversial act of sabotage that has spawned multiple criminal investigations and that U.S. and Western officials have called a dangerous attack on Europe’s energy infrastructure.

Roman Chervinsky, a decorated 48-year-old colonel who served in Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces, was the “coordinator” of the Nord Stream operation, people familiar with his role said, managing logistics and support for a six-person team that rented a sailboat under false identities and used deep-sea diving equipment to place explosive charges on the gas pipelines. On Sept. 26, 2022, three explosions caused massive leaks on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, which run from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea. The attack left only one of the four gas links in the network intact as winter approached.

Chervinsky did not act alone and he did not plan the operation, according to the people familiar with his role, which has not been previously reported. The officer took orders from more senior Ukrainian officials, who ultimately reported to Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, Ukraine’s highest-ranking military officer, said people familiar with how the operation was carried out. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details about the bombing, which has strained diplomatic relations with Ukraine and drawn objections from U.S. officials.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/11/11/nordstream-bombing-ukraine-chervinsky/

[Igel]

1. I love anonymous sources.

But then again, I don't know how many tens of thousands of pages of Realist Socialist Russian literature I've read, or thousands of copies of Izvestiya, Pravda, or > or "Ogonyok" I've read.

Anonymous informants ... It's somehow comforting. Reminds me of afternoons in my studio apt. in grad school, half emptied beer can, half finished Soviet novel, as I check off another work required on my reading list in hopeful anticipation of finishing yet another work in which the good hero convinces the politically bad antihero of his ways and converts him to the One True Path.

A medieval morality play on Marxism. (But, ya know, aren't most pop-oriented novels/romances/sci-fi/fantasy novels little but medieval morality plays? Belyaev easy, Sologub or Olesha ... Or Dostoevsky ... Or Pelevin or Solov'ov ... Hard.)

[former9thward]

2. The Washington Post is one of the leading newspapers in the country.

I doubt they would run with a story based on nothing.