Russia calls UN meeting on Nord Stream pipeline ‘sabotage’

Russia called a Security Council meeting over the bombing of the Nord Stream pipelines after circulating a resolution calling for an urgent UN investigation.

In advance of the meeting on Tuesday, the ambassadors of Denmark, Sweden and Germany sent a letter to council members saying their investigations have established the pipelines were extensively damaged “by powerful explosions due to sabotage”.

The letter said further investigations are being conducted in all three countries and it is unclear when they will finish. Russian authorities have been informed about the continuing investigations.

Security Council experts held closed consultations on Monday on the Russian draft resolution and council diplomats said there was opposition to it. No vote was expected at Tuesday’s meeting, council diplomats said.

Nord Stream 1 carried Russian gas to Germany until Moscow cut off supplies at the end of August 2022. Nord Stream 2 never entered service as Germany suspended its certification process shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

The explosions on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines took place on September 26.

Russia has alleged the US was behind the attack, and the country’s resolution said the sabotage “occurred after the repeated threats to the Nord Stream by the leadership of the United States”.

The US has denied the allegation. US Department of State spokesman Ned Price last week called it “pure disinformation” that the US was involved in targeting Nord Stream.

‘Substantial and worrisome’

In their letter to the council, Denmark, Sweden and Germany reiterated that acts of sabotage against the pipelines were “unacceptable, endanger international security and give cause for our deep concern”.

Concerns about the indirect effects on greenhouse gas emissions are “substantial and worrisome”, the letter said.

The Russian draft resolution expressed serious concern at the “devastating consequences to the environment” from the acts of sabotage, which also “pose a threat to international peace and security”.

The attack is estimated to have released 778 million cubic metres of methane – the biggest burst of the potent greenhouse gas on record, raising new fears of the effect on the climate emergency.

In Germany, the federal prosecutor has launched a criminal investigation to establish if a crime of sabotage under section 88 of the criminal code was committed.

The Russian draft asked UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to urgently establish an independent international investigation of the sabotage to identify “its perpetrators, sponsors, organisers and accomplices”.

Pipeline operator Russia and other interested parties have been barred from national investigations into the matter, it said.