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Gas escaped for days over the leaks in the Nord Stream pipelines
Photo: Danish Defense/UPI Photo/IMAGO
The federal police ended their mission to investigate the sabotage attack on the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea.
According to SPIEGEL information, the multi-purpose boat "Mittelgrund" is already on its way back to its home port.
The mine hunting boat "Dillingen" carried out an underwater survey near the pipeline leaks on Thursday, but should then also set course for Germany.
The federal police are conducting the investigation and last week asked the Bundeswehr for administrative assistance with two military boats.
In their investigations, the federal police focused on the two leaks northeast of the Baltic Sea island of Bornholm.
After their arrival over the damaged part of the pipeline, a »Sea Cat« underwater drone equipped with cameras and other sensors was launched.
The Federal Police divers, who were also on board, were not deployed because of the depth of around 70 meters.
Security sources said the drone was able to take pictures of the damaged pipeline.
These would now be evaluated.
The underwater research was anything but easy.
In the first few days, the strong current, which threw up a lot of sand on the seabed, thwarted the investigators.
In addition, the experts first had to identify the possible crime scene with sonar devices from the Navy boat "Mittelgrund".
When the drone finally got there, it also filmed the entire area around the damage site with its cameras and looked for clues to the perpetrator or perpetrators.
So far there has only been speculation about the people behind the sabotage action.
The only thing that is reasonably clear is that on September 26 there were several massive explosions near the course of the two "Nord Stream" pipelines.
The detonations were so violent that several institutes that normally monitor earthquakes recorded significant seismic excursions.
After an initial analysis, the German authorities assume that an explosive force comparable to 500 kilograms of TNT was required.
After the explosions, gas flowed to the surface from three leaks for days, the escape point being so large that it could be seen from the air.
Although both pipelines were not active because Russia stopped supplying gas to Germany, the pipes were still filled with gas.
Due to the complexity of the attack, it was quickly assumed that only a state actor could be the perpetrator.
It has been speculated that Russia itself destroyed the pipeline.
Moscow denies this.
Sweden sees suspicion of sabotage confirmed
Because of the special significance of the case, the Federal Public Prosecutor in Germany has initiated preliminary proceedings.
From the point of view of the supreme investigative authority, it is a serious violent attack on the energy supply that could affect Germany's external and internal security.
Specifically, Karlsruhe is investigating the suspicion of “deliberately causing an explosives explosion” and “anti-constitutional sabotage”.
Even before the joint police and army mission, Sweden had extensively investigated the leak.
However, little was known about the results.
Prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist said only that there had been several detonations that had caused major damage to the gas pipelines.
The suspicion of sabotage was "confirmed" by the investigations on the seabed.
The evidence collected there still has to be evaluated.