Ukraine military officer coordinated attack on pipeline, new report claims

A Ukrainian military officer coordinated last year’s attack on the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline, the Washington Post reported on Saturday, citing anonymous sources in Ukraine and Europe.

No one has taken responsibility for the September 2022 blasts, which occurred off the Danish island of Bornholm and ruptured three out of four lines of the system that delivers Russian gas to Europe.

Washington and NATO called it an act of sabotage, while Moscow said it was an act of international terrorism.

Roman Chervinsky, a former intelligence official who served in the Ukrainian military’s special forces, managed a six-person team but did not plan the attack, the Post reported. He denied involvement.

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A spokesperson for Ukraine’s military told Reuters he had “no information” about the claim. The Ukrainian foreign ministry and Kyiv’s domestic security service, the SBU, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Russia on Saturday launched a missile attack on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv and the surrounding region for the first time in more than seven weeks and pounded the east and south of the country with drones, Ukrainian officials said.

Ruslan Kravchenko, regional governor for the central Kyiv region, said five private houses and several commercial buildings in the area were damaged. He said two Russian missiles struck a field between settlements.

Ukraine's air defence also shot down 19 Iranian-made “Shahed” drones out of 31 launched by the Russian forces overnight in southern and eastern regions, the air force said.

Ukrainian intelligence official Andriy Yusov told national television: “This is not the first or the last combined attack.” He pointed to increasing numbers of air alerts in recent days.

Online video from Kharkiv region showed border guards raising the blue and yellow Ukrainian flag in Topoli village alongside the Russian border, without further explanation. Ukrainian forces a year ago made a lightning push to recapture large swathes of territory in the northeast and since June are engaged in a counteroffensive in the east and south.

Prosecutors in northern Sumy region said two people aboard motorcycles died when Russian forces shelled a road.

In the east, military spokesperson Oleskandr Shtupun said Ukrainian troops had repelled 35 Russian assaults in and near Avdiivka, which has been under intense fire since mid-October.

Shtupun told national television that 70 per cent of air strikes in the east and south targeted Avdiivka.

Officials in Avdiivka say they anticipate a new Russian push on the city once the ground dries up from days of heavy rain. Videos show buildings reduced to shells and officials say increasing numbers of the remaining 1,500 residents, from a pre-war population of 32,000, were preparing to evacuate.

In the Black Sea port of Odesa, regional governor Oleh Kiper said the southern region was attacked with missiles and drones on Friday evening and overnight. The strikes wounded three people and damaged port infrastructure facilities, he said without offering further details.

Russia has intensified bombardments of Ukraine's ports, including Odesa, and grain infrastructure since Moscow in July pulled out of a deal to allow for exports from Ukrainian ports.

Russian accounts of the fighting said its forces had struck positions near Bakhmut, a town Moscow captured in May after months of heavy fighting.

Reuters could not verify accounts from either side. – Reuters

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