Explosive-laden drone found near Nord Stream pipeline

IntelliNews - 

Swedish authorities investigating the explosion that ripped holes in the Nord Stream gas pipelines reported on October 20 they had found an explosive laden drone on the seabed near the pipelines.


Explosive-laden drone found near Nord Stream pipeline© IntelliNews

The Swedish armed forces were called in to remove and disarm the drone.

“We don't consider it to be dangerous to merchant vessels or the pipeline at this point,” Jesper Stolpe, Swedish Armed Forces spokesman, told Radio Sweden. The cable used to control the drone and to set off the explosive was cut, rendering the drone harmless, according to Stolpe.

The national identity of the drone has not been verified so far, as many countries use Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs) of a similar construction, Stolpe said.

Swedish seismologists were the first to report several explosions near the pipelines, aftergas began to leak into the sea on the evening of September 26, raising the suspicion of sabotage.

The discovery of the still unidentified drone confirms those fears. Sweden has been conducting a joint investigation with Poland and Germany, however, despite requests to participate, Russia has been excluded. Sweden said this week that it has classified the results of the investigation on “national security” grounds.

It remains unclear who was behind the explosions, but the chief suspects, all of which have strong motives to destroy the pipelines, are Russia, the US, Ukraine and Poland. Russia has blamed the US and denied any involvement in blowing up its own multi-billion dollar pipelines, although technically the pipelines belong to Germany.

Previously it was argued that as the pipeline lies so deep in the sea that only countries with submarines could successfully carry out the attack, but use of a UUV considerably broadens the field of suspects.

The drone was found near one of the two strands of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline during a routine survey operation as part of the annual integrity assessment of the Nord Stream pipeline, Pipeline Journalreports.

The explosions rupture three of the four strands with one belonging to Nord Stream 2 remaining intact.

The sections of pipeline destroyed were in the Swedish Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) approximately 120 km away from the island of Gotland. The gas leak that emptied tonnes of methane into the atmosphere in what some have called theworst emissions disaster ever.

Sweden immediately imposed a 5km no-go zone around the leak on shipping, afraid of further explosions.