Explosions of such scale require heavy tools, together with a big ship with a loader crane, a famend diver has informed Bild
A story pushed by the Western media a few small workforce of Ukrainian divers being behind the sabotage of the Nord Stream gasoline pipelines in September 2022 is tough to consider, Dr Sven Thomas, a famend German diving specialist, has informed Bild over the weekend.
Injury sustained by the Russian undersea pipelines suggests that rather more highly effective explosive fees and a a lot bigger vessel have been used to render them out of fee, he mentioned, including {that a} small yacht the media maintain reporting about would by no means suffice.
American and German media have repeatedly claimed that the blasts have been linked to a small Ukrainian crew that rented a leisure yacht known as Andromeda at a German port and set off armed solely with diving tools, satellite tv for pc navigation, and open-source maps. The operation was reportedly given a inexperienced mild by Ukraine’s then-commander in chief, Valery Zaluzhny.
A number of media shops reported in August that the German authorities had issued a world arrest warrant for a suspect within the case, a Ukrainian diver recognized as Volodymyr Z.
“There will need to have been at the very least yet one more workforce to trigger the massive explosions,” mentioned Sven Thomas, who heads a state-backed life-saving service within the German metropolis of Halle. The specialist, who leads a crew {of professional} divers and underwater archeologists, added that he had “severe doubts” about the entire story linking the incidents to only a six-member Ukrainian crew utilizing a 15-meter-long leisure yacht.
In line with Thomas, divers working at a depth of simply 34 meters in a lake would wish at the very least 4 anchors chained to a vessel to maintain their tools secure. Andromeda had just one 25-kilogram anchor and a 100-meter-long chain, whereas its crew supposedly dived on the depth of between 80 and 90 meters within the sea. That’s simply “inconceivable,” in line with Thomas, who has been conducting diving operations for years.
The overall weight of the tools wanted for such an operation could be about 4 tons, the professional mentioned, including that seismic data of the explosions present that at the very least a number of fees equal to 400 kilograms of TNT have been used to blast the pipes.
“They can not drop such bomb fees into water with out a crane and a counterweight, the vessel would simply capsize in any other case,” Thomas mentioned. In line with the specialist diver, the truth that the pipelines have been “crushed like a tin can” means that the injury was attributable to highly effective explosions close by moderately than small fees planted straight on the pipelines.
Thomas believes that it factors to military-grade backside mines with a yield equal to round 1260 kilograms of TNT. Such mines can solely be planted by a big vessel with a crane onboard, the professional informed Bild. Andromeda may have been behind solely considered one of 4 blasts, which was probably attributable to a small explosive cost planted straight on one of many pipelines, he added.
Moscow dismissed the Western media studies implicating Andromeda as implausible. President Vladimir Putin has maintained the view that the explosions have been carried out by professionals supported by “the total may of the state, which has sure applied sciences,” noting that the US was “in all probability” behind it. Final month, Danish media reported that US Navy warships had been working close to the Nord Stream pipelines shortly earlier than the explosions.
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