Russian navy vessel was seen near Nord Stream pipelines four days before they were blown up

A Russian naval ship specializing in submarine operations was photographed near the sabotaged Nord Stream gas pipelines just before mysterious explosions in September, the Danish daily Information Friday reported.

The newspaper said the submarine rescue ship SS-750 was photographed in the Baltic Sea four days before the still unexplained explosions on the pipelines connecting Russia to Germany.

The SS-750 has its own mini-submarine called the AS-26, which can reach a depth of 80 meters and carry loads of up to 50 kg.

“The Danish army has confirmed that 26 photos of the Russian ship were taken on September 22, 2022 from a Danish patrol boat in the zone east of Bornholm,” Information said.

The Danish military did not respond to a request for comment.

In this file photo taken September 27, 2022, this handout photo released by the Danish Defense Command shows the gas leak at the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline

Seven months after the spectacular explosions on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, who was responsible has yet to be determined despite criminal investigations in the countries bordering the damaged section of the pipelines – Germany, Sweden and Denmark.

The New York Times reported in March that US officials had seen new intelligence suggesting a “pro-Ukrainian group” was responsible, without involvement of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

German prosecutors subsequently said investigators searched a ship suspected of carrying explosives used in the explosions in January.

The prosecutor who led the Swedish investigation said in March it was “still unclear” who was behind the sabotage, calling it “a complex case.”

“Our primary assumption is that there is a state behind it,” said Mats Ljungqvist.

“The people who did this probably knew they were going to leave clues and probably made sure the evidence didn’t point in one direction, but in multiple directions,” he added.

A former Danish intelligence officer turned analyst, Jacob Kaarsbo, told Information that the presence of the SS-750 in the zone “sheds light on what has been happening in the region in recent days.”

The confirmation was of particular importance “because we know it is capable of carrying out such an operation,” he said.

Earlier this month, it was alleged that Russia is using “ghost” spy ships disguised as fishing boats off the British coast to map wind farms and communication cables for sabotage attacks in case it goes to war with the West.

The fleet of Russian ships, disguised as fishing boats and research vessels, are reportedly cruising the North Sea collecting data on where wind farms, gas pipelines, and power and internet cables are located.

The ships are conducting underwater surveillance to map out how the infrastructure is connected for the purpose of planning sabotage attacks against the West, according to a documentary broadcast by public broadcasters in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland.

Russia is aiming to plan the sabotage attacks in case it goes to war with the West, with the aim of crippling Europe’s power supply, intelligence sources warned.

“In the event of a conflict with the West, they are ready and know where to intervene if they want to paralyze Danish society,” said counterintelligence chief Anders Henriksen of Denmark’s police intelligence agency. Danish DR.

“This is a strategic capability for Russia, considered very important and directed directly from Moscow,” added Nils Andreas Stensones, head of Norwegian intelligence.

Intercepted Russian Navy radio communications reveal Russia is using ‘ghost ships’ in the North Sea. These ships have turned off their transmitters and are therefore untraceable in international waters.

Russia is using “ghost” spy ships disguised as fishing boats off the British coast to map wind farms and communications cables for sabotage attacks in case it comes to war with the West, a probe claims. Last November, Admiral Vladimirsky (pictured) sailed around the Kattegat Sea between Denmark and Sweden without sharing his location for a month

Video shows a man in a mask holding a Russian military semi-automatic rifle and stepping forward on the upper deck as a DR journalist approaches Admiral Vladimirsky in a dinghy. Several other men also stepped forward

The Kremlin on Wednesday dismissed the media’s claims as a “mistake” and “baseless,” reiterating its call for “a transparent and impartial international investigation” into the September 2022 sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson meanwhile deemed the claims in the documentary ‘serious’.

“This just shows that we have a very risky situation in our immediate vicinity,” he told reporters at a naval base in southern Sweden.

Broadcasters DR in Denmark, NRK in Norway, SVT in Sweden and Yle in Finland pointed to how the Russian naval ship Admiral Vladimirsky is being used for intelligence gathering – rather than oceanic research, as Russia says.