President denies any involvement of Ukraine in Nord Stream blasts

President Volodymyr Zelensky denies any possible involvement of Ukraine in the autumn explosions along the Nord Stream undersea natural gas pipelines and believes that such information may be spread to provoke a slowdown in aid to Ukrainians.

"As for the Nord Stream [blasts], we have nothing to do with it," Zelensky said at a joint press conference with Prime Minister of Finland Sanna Marin in Kyiv on March 9, an Ukrinform correspondent reported.

When asked who spreads the information about the alleged involvement of "pro-Ukrainian groups" in the incidents and why, the President suggested that this may be done to slow down aid to Ukraine.

"I think it is very dangerous that some independent media, which I have always had great respect for, are taking such steps. I think it is wrong, it only plays into the hands of the Russian Federation or there are also some business groups that are interested in failure to impose powerful sanctions because their business suffers, and such groups may exist not only in Russia," Zelensky said.

He emphasized that Ukraine is currently fighting the enemy, Russia, but added that there is still a fight against "people who see nothing but money", whose business is suffering due to the decrease in trade with the terrorist state, etc.

The President also said that there are third countries that allow the Russian Federation to circumvent sanctions.

"On the one hand, they support Ukraine, our sovereignty, they even send something to Ukraine, you know, for show. And on the other hand, they circumvent sanctions, earn tens of billions of dollars, and ramp up trade with the Russian Federation compared to the pre-military period," the President noted.

According to him, this concerns many countries, even EU and NATO members.

"I would pay attention to this and analyze who needs this, who needs such disinformation. Ukraine definitely did not do that. And this is the most important thing. They say there are some signs, and maybe even some kind of flag, it looks funny, to be honest. We are interested in weapons supplies, imposition of sanctions, and our victory," Zelensky stressed.

As reported, at the end of September 2022, four leaks emerged on Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines’ sections in the exclusive economic zones of Denmark and Sweden as a result of explosions along the pipelines near the island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea.

The investigation into the sabotage carried out with the participation of the competent authorities of Sweden, Germany, and Denmark is ongoing. Many countries tend to believe that the blasts were initiated by the Russian Federation. Russia denies involvement in the incident.

On March 7, several foreign media outlets, in particular German outlets and The New York Times, reported the alleged involvement of "pro-Ukrainian groups" in the incident.

The German government stated that there are currently no results of the investigation.