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The Swedish prosecutor in charge of the preliminary investigation of the large-scale breaches in the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines confirmed on November 18 that investigators found traces of explosives at the site. For the investigators, there are clues of “serious sabotage” in the pipelines of the Baltic Sea, which transported gas from Russia to Europe. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian parliament’s human rights commissioner, Dmitro Loubinets, denounced the existence of Russian torture chambers in Kherson.
A preliminary investigation describes “serious sabotage” behind the leaks in the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, which cut off the flow of gas from Russia to Europe last September.
In a statement, Swedish prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist, who led the investigation, reported that after carefully searching the area in the Baltic Sea and carrying out “extensive seizures”, investigators found traces of explosives in the area of two pipelines that were damaged.
“The analysis that has now been carried out shows traces of explosives in several of the foreign objects that were found. Advanced analysis work is continuing to be able to draw firmer conclusions about the incident,” Ljungqvis said.
The statement does not name any suspects and the prosecutor stresses that it is a “very complex and exhaustive” investigation, so a more detailed scrutiny would show whether someone could be charged “on suspicion of a crime.”
A team of experts from Sweden, Denmark and Germany is investigating what happened. Last October, Danish officials noted that there was extensive damage to the pipelines caused by “powerful explosions,” likely involving hundreds of pounds of explosives. But this is the first time that prosecutors have pointed to a provoked act.
At the end of last September, large-scale ruptures in oil pipelines caused a gas leak visible from the surface of the Baltic Sea.
In mid-October, underwater images showed the extent of the damage, and a few days later the Russian Defense Ministry accused British navy personnel of blowing up the pipelines, without producing any evidence to support that claim. London categorically rejected the accusations from Moscow.
The leaks in the pipelines, which run from Russia to Germany, stopped after several days and occurred in international waters, but within the exclusive economic zones of Denmark and Sweden.
Both pipelines have been in the midst of geopolitical tensions since the start of the war that Russia launched against Ukraine on February 24, fueled by Moscow’s decision to cut off gas supplies to Europe in retaliation for Western sanctions.
Ukraine denounces Russia’s use of torture chamber in Kherson
Ukrainian Parliament human rights commissioner Dmitro Loubinets released a video showing what he described as a torture chamber used by Russian troops when they occupied the Kherson area of southern Ukraine.
Although the allegations have not been independently corroborated, Loubinets released the images after Ukraine’s Interior Minister Denys Monastyrski announced that investigators discovered 63 bodies with signs of torture.
In the video, a middle-aged man claims that he was held for 24 hours in one of the rooms of the place. He claims that Russian soldiers tied him to a chair and gave him electric shocks “until he lost consciousness.”
“They asked the questions they wanted and got the answers they wanted (…) One after another. They prepared a series of questions and wrote what they wanted,” he said.
The human rights commissioner of the Ukrainian Legislature indicated that up to 25 people were detained at the same time in a crowded room.
“The people detained here were not allowed to go to the bathroom,” he explained about the video broadcast on social networks.
The Ukrainian Interior Ministry stated that the Police found 436 cases of war crimes during the occupation of the Kremlin military in the Kherson region. There, the authorities found eleven places of detention, including four where torture was practiced.
After the liberation of towns and cities that were in the hands of the invading troops, survivors and authorities expose crimes against humanity.
However, Moscow insists on rejecting the accusations and ensures that it does not attack the civilian population during the war, which it refers to as a “special military operation” to “denazify” Ukraine.
With Reuters, AP and local media
