Zelenskiy aide: Kyiv ‘absolutely not involved’ in Nord Stream attack

KYIV (Reuters) – A senior aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday that Kyiv was “absolutely not involved” in last year’s attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines and has no information about what happened.

A New York Times report on Tuesday cited U.S. officials suggesting a pro-Ukrainian group was responsible for the blasts in September 2022, seven months into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Without a doubt, Ukraine is absolutely not involved in the excesses on the pipelines,” Mykhailo Podolyak said in a statement to Reuters. “It does not make the slightest bit of sense.”

He added that Ukraine has no information about exactly who was involved but speculated that what he called Russian efforts to destabilise the region might have been to blame.

“Starting from the first day of construction on the pipelines at the bottom of the Baltic Sea, Ukraine repeatedly drew the attention of its Western partners to the sharply growing strategic risks for the security of Europe carried by the realisation of this project,” Podolyak said.

(Reporting by Dan Peleschuk; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel and Mark Heinrich)