The Swedish Coast Guard earlier this week discovered a fourth gas leak on the damaged Nord Stream pipelines, a spokesperson told the Svenska Dagbladet newspaper late on Wednesday.
The EU suspects sabotage was behind the gas leaks on the subsea Russian pipelines to Europe and has promised a “robust” response to any intentional disruption of its energy infrastructure.
“Two of these four are in Sweden’s exclusive economic zone,” coast guard spokesperson Jenny Larsson told the paper.
Photo: AFP
The other two breaches are in the Danish exclusive economic zone.
The coast guard did not immediately respond to a request for comment yesterday.
While neither pipeline was in use at the time of the suspected blasts, they were filled with gas that has been spewing out in the Baltic Sea since Monday’s ruptures.
The fourth leak was on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, in close proximity to a larger hole found on the nearby Nord Stream 1, the coast guard said.
This week, Danish authorities reported one hole in each of the two pipeline sections in their waters. Moscow on Wednesday questioned whether Washington caused the leaks, in a turn of the tables that US officials bluntly called “ridiculous.”
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said the leaks occurred in a zone controlled by US intelligence services, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.
The gas outflows from the pipelines, which Denmark estimates would be equivalent to 32 percent of its annual carbon emissions have sent natural gas prices soaring, exacerbating an energy crunch in Europe as it stands on the threshold of winter and fanning geopolitical tensions.
Swedish intelligence announced that it was opening an investigation into the leaks, branding them “aggravated sabotage,” just hours after the EU called the damage “deliberate.”
However, the question of who is responsible has prompted high-level finger-pointing, with Moscow charging that the US had said Nord Stream 2 was “finished” if Russia invaded Ukraine.
US President Joe “Biden is obliged to answer the question of whether the US carried out its threat,” Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on social media.
Washington dismissed the suggestion, with a spokeswoman for the US National Security Council saying: “We all know Russia has a long history of spreading disinformation and is doing it again here.”
Among Western allies, suspicion for the leaks has focused on Russia, which has cut gas supplies to Europe in retaliation for severe Western sanctions over the war in Ukraine.
Russia replied by saying it would ask for the UN Security Council to convene “in connection with provocations” regarding the ruptured pipes.
Following Europe’s sabotage allegations, fossil fuel-rich Norway boosted security at its installations in response.
They “are not a coincidence,” EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said in a statement.
“All available information indicates those leaks are the result of a deliberate act,” he said.
“Any deliberate disruption of European energy infrastructure is utterly unacceptable and will be met with a robust and united response,” he said
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel have also blamed the leaks on sabotage, as have leaders of several European countries.
Michel wrote on Twitter that they “appear to be an attempt to further destabilize energy supply to EU... Those responsible will be held fully accountable and made to pay.”
The EU is mulling further sanctions on Russia for annexation votes imposed on four regions in Ukraine that Moscow’s forces occupy.
Built in parallel to the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, Nord Stream 2 was intended to double the capacity for Russian gas imports to Germany.
However, Berlin blocked the newly completed Nord Stream 2 in the days before the war.
Germany, which has been highly dependent on imports of fossil fuels from Russia to meet its energy needs, has since come under acute stress as Moscow’s supplies dwindle.
Sweden and Poland agree that sabotage is the most likely cause of the leaks, with Warsaw suggesting Russia was probably the culprit, to escalate the war in Ukraine.
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