Seismologists have pinpointed the timing of three explosions on September 26 that caused four leaks on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines.

After months of investigation into the Nord Stream bombings, multiple officials are saying privately that Russia may not be “to blame for the pipeline attack.”

As reported by The Washington Post, in the months after the explosions, which led to what is likely one of the largest single releases of methane in history, investigators analyzed the remains of explosives that were recovered from the bottom of the Baltic Sea.

“There is currently no evidence that Russia was behind the sabotage,” one European official said. According to the article, some officials went so far as to say that they do not consider Russia to be responsible. Others, who still see Russia as the prime suspect, say it may be impossible to unequivocally attribute the attack to any one country.

Seismologists have pinpointed the timing of three explosions on September 26 that caused four leaks on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines.

No one doubts that the damage was intentional. A German government official, which is conducting its own investigation, said the explosives must have been planted outside the buildings.

But even those who know the details of the forensic examination cannot definitively link Russia to the attack, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“Forensic examination of such an investigation will be extremely difficult,” said a senior official of the US State Department.

Attribution of the attack was difficult from the beginning, according to the article. The first explosion occurred in the middle of the night southeast of the Danish island of Bornholm. Scientists recorded two more explosions in more than 12 hours northeast of the island.

Given the relatively shallow depth of the damaged pipelines — about 80 yards at the site of a single blast — officials said, several different actors could theoretically have carried out the attack, possibly using underwater drones or surface ships. The list of suspects is not limited to countries that have manned submarines or experience in deep-sea demolitions.

The leaks occurred in the exclusive economic zones of Sweden and Denmark. European countries tried to map which ships were in the region in the days before the explosions, hoping to weed out the suspects.

However, Russia remains a prime suspect, in part because of its recent history of bombing civilian infrastructure in Ukraine and its penchant for unconventional warfare. According to officials, it is not too far-fetched to think that the Kremlin would attack Nord Stream, perhaps to undermine NATO’s resolve and deprive allies that depend on Russian energy sources.

Explosions on “Nordic Streams”:

At the end of September 2022, the Nord Stream operator announced that the pressure in both threads of the Russian gas pipeline had dropped sharply. A leak of up to 500 million cubic meters of technical gas was reported.

On September 27, information appeared that explosions were heard in the “Nordic Stream” area.

The press secretary of the Russian president, Dmitry Peskov, said that the Russian authorities do not rule out the possibility of sabotage.

The European Union believes that the gas leak was the result of deliberate actions. Leaders of Western countries do not rule out that it was sabotage.

Recently, the State Security Service of Sweden completed an inspection of the damaged sections of the gas pipelines. He confirmed that the leak was caused by explosions.