London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Friday, Aug 22, 2025

Sweden and Denmark say Nord Stream pipeline blasts were deliberate attacks

Sweden and Denmark say Nord Stream pipeline blasts were deliberate attacks

Although suspicion is falling on Russia, neither Copenhagen or Stockholm identified a culprit.

Sweden and Denmark on Tuesday said blasts on two Russia-to-Germany Nord Stream gas pipelines under the Baltic Sea were acts of sabotage, although neither country was ready to identify the culprit.

"It is the authorities' assessment that these are deliberate actions. It is not an accident," Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said on Tuesday, hardening an assessment from earlier in the day. "The situation is as serious as it gets," she added in remarks carried on Danish media.

Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson agreed: “We have Swedish information and we have also been in touch with Denmark, and based on this, we have concluded that this is likely a deliberate act, that is, it is likely an act of sabotage.”

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki went further and directly hinted at Russian involvement.

"We do not yet know the details of what happened, but we can clearly see that it is an act of sabotage," he said at a joint appearance with Frederiksen earlier in the day, calling it "the next stage in the escalation of the situation we are facing in Ukraine."

Two of the leaks were near the double Nord Stream 1 pipeline, to the northeast of Denmark's Bornholm island, and one leak was reported near the Nord Stream 2 pipeline off the southeastern coast of the island, the Danish Maritime Authority said on Tuesday. The incidents are just beyond Denmark's territorial waters, with two in Denmark's exclusive economic zone and one in Sweden's exclusive economic zone — areas where the sea has the status of international waters.

Sweden's national seismic network detected two distinct blasts in the area on Monday, one at 2.03 a.m. and the second at 7.04 p.m., reported national broadcaster SVT.

A no-go zone of 5 nautical miles was established around each of the sites, which are at a likely depth of 60 meters to 70 meters, Baltic maritime agencies said.

The Danish military released pictures of clouds of gas bubbles roiling the surface of the sea.

Asked on Tuesday whether the leaks were the result of sabotage, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said: "We cannot rule out any possibility right now. Obviously, there is some sort of destruction of the pipe. Before the results of the investigation, it is impossible to rule out any option."

"This is a completely unprecedented situation that requires an urgent investigation," he added.

Nord Stream 2, which is not in operation, was nonetheless filled with 177 million cubic meters of natural gas — worth €358 million at current prices — to bring pipeline pressure up to 300 bar in anticipation of being allowed to flow. Germany froze approval of the pipeline after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

At the German landfall, pipeline pressure was registering 7 bar, the German infrastructure regulator said on Monday.


"Today we were informed by the network operator Gascade that there has been a sharp drop in pressure in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline," the infrastructure regulator said in an emailed statement. "We still have no clarity about the causes and the exact facts."

The double-string undersea gas link runs 1,200 kilometers through Russian, Finnish, Swedish, Danish and German territorial waters.

Nord Stream 2 AG, the pipeline owner and operator, did not respond to requests for comment. The pipeline is owned by Russia's Gazprom.

The parallel Nord Stream 1 pipeline was fully opened in 2012. It has a capacity of 55 billion cubic meters a year, but Russia has stopped sending gas through to Germany, claiming that the pipeline needs maintenance. German politicians accuse the Kremlin of feigning repairs to retaliate against the EU’s support for Ukraine.

Nord Stream AG, the company that owns Nord Stream 1 and is a consortium in which Gazprom has a majority stake and includes four Western energy firms, said on Monday evening: "The dispatchers of the Nord Stream 1 control center registered a pressure drop on both strings of the gas pipeline. The reasons are being investigated."

Given it took weeks for Nord Stream 2 to be filled with that amount of gas, the speed of the pressure drop — virtually overnight — pointed to the possibility of a major leak rather than any attempt on the Russian side to siphon back gas supplies, according to several officials not authorized to speak publicly.


'Improbable' leaks


The Nord Stream 1 pipeline was fully opened in 2012 and has a capacity of 55 billion cubic meters a year


“It seems extremely improbable that the leaks on two different pipelines happen at the same time. Therefore I think we should assume that it was intentional to create these leaks,” said Mateusz Kubiak, managing partner at the Warsaw-based Esperis consultancy. He added that he did not think it would make sense for the West or Ukraine to sabotage the pipelines, “Especially as the gas flows were already halted, in the case of Nord Stream 1, or had never started in the case of Nord Stream 2."

A European Commission spokesperson said Tuesday: “At this stage, it’s very premature to speculate on what the causes are. As I said, we have been informed by the member states concerned, and the member states are looking into this issue. We will remain in close contact with them.”

The price on the EU's benchmark TTF gas hub was up by 20 percent to around €209 per megawatt hour on Wednesday — still far below August's peak of €346 per MWh, but a sign of the concern over future gas supplies.

Unlike oil spills, natural gas — also known as methane — bubbles up to the surface. However, there are climate consequences. It is highly flammable and has such a potent global warming effect that it has been likened to "CO2 on steroids."

"As soon as the gaseous methane rises above the sea surface into the atmosphere, it contributes massively to the greenhouse effect," said Sascha Müller-Kraenner, federal director of NGO Environmental Action Germany.

"The significant drop in pressure that has already occurred in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline gives reason to fear that this is a major accident and that significant quantities of the dangerous greenhouse gas methane have already leaked into the Baltic Sea," said Müller-Kraenner.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Ukraine Declares De Facto War on Hungary and Slovakia with Terror Drone Strikes on Their Gas Lifeline
Animated K-pop Musical ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Becomes Netflix’s Most-Watched Original Animated Film
New York Appeals Court Voids Nearly $500 Million Civil Fraud Penalty Against Trump While Upholding Fraud Liability
Elon Musk tweeted, “Europe is dying”
Far-Right Activist Convicted of Incitement Changes Gender and Demands: "Send Me to a Women’s Prison" | The Storm in Germany
Hungary Criticizes Ukraine: "Violating Our Sovereignty"
Will this be the first country to return to negative interest rates?
Child-free hotels spark controversy
North Korea is where this 95-year-old wants to die. South Korea won’t let him go. Is this our ally or a human rights enemy?
Hong Kong Launches Regulatory Regime and Trials for HKD-Backed Stablecoins
China rehearses September 3 Victory Day parade as imagery points to ‘loyal wingman’ FH-97 family presence
Trump Called Viktor Orbán: "Why Are You Using the Veto"
Horror in the Skies: Plane Engine Exploded, Passengers Sent Farewell Messages
MSNBC Rebrands as MS NOW Amid Comcast’s Cable Spin-Off
AI in Policing: Draft One Helps Speed Up Reports but Raises Legal and Ethical Concerns
Shame in Norway: Crown Princess’s Son Accused of Four Rapes
Apple Begins Simultaneous iPhone 17 Production in India and China
A Robot to Give Birth: The Chinese Announcement That Shakes the World
Finnish MP Dies by Suicide in Parliament Building
Outrage in the Tennis World After Jannik Sinner’s Withdrawal Storm
William and Kate Are Moving House – and the New Neighbors Were Evicted
Class Action Lawsuit Against Volkswagen: Steering Wheel Switches Cause Accidents
Taylor Swift on the Way to the Super Bowl? All the Clues Stirring Up Fans
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Apple Expands Social Media Presence in China With RedNote Account Ahead of iPhone 17 Launch
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Cambridge Dictionary Adds 'Skibidi,' 'Delulu,' and 'Tradwife' Amid Surge of Online Slang
Bill Barr Testifies No Evidence Implicated Trump in Epstein Case; DOJ Set to Release Records
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
The CEO Who Replaced 80% of Employees for the AI Revolution: "I Would Do It Again"
Emails Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Character.ai Bets on Future of AI Companionship
China Ramps Up Tax Crackdown on Overseas Investments
Japanese Office Furniture Maker Expands into Bomb Shelter Market
Intel Shares Surge on Possible U.S. Government Investment
Hurricane Erin Threatens U.S. East Coast with Dangerous Surf
EU Blocks Trade Statement Over Digital Rule Dispute
EU Sends Record Aid as Spain Battles Wildfires
JPMorgan Plans New Canary Wharf Tower
Zelenskyy and his allies say they will press Trump on security guarantees
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Escalating Clashes in Serbia as Anti-Government Protests Spread Nationwide
The Drought in Britain and the Strange Request from the Government to Delete Old Emails
Category 5 Hurricane in the Caribbean: 'Catastrophic Storm' with Winds of 255 km/h
"No, Thanks": The Mathematical Genius Who Turned Down 1.5 Billion Dollars from Zuckerberg
The surprising hero, the ugly incident, and the criticism despite victory: "Liverpool’s defense exposed in full"
Digital Humans Move Beyond Sci-Fi: From Virtual DJs to AI Customer Agents
YouTube will start using AI to guess your age. If it’s wrong, you’ll have to prove it
Jellyfish Swarm Triggers Shutdown at Gravelines Nuclear Power Station in Northern France
×