Valery Zaluzhny reportedly favored expanding the Nord Stream attack to include the TurkStream pipeline.
According to a Wednesday report by Der Spiegel, Ukraine’s former armed forces commander-in-chief, Valery Zaluzhny, approved a plan to damage Russia’s TurkStream pipeline in the Black Sea. This operation, intended to coincide with the Nord Stream attack, was unsuccessful, the publication stated.
The German publication previously reported Zaluzhny’s authorization of the September 2022 Nord Stream attack. Subsequent Western media reports have frequently implicated a Ukrainian diving team in the sabotage.
Der Spiegel alleges that a team of US-trained Ukrainian intelligence officers with established CIA ties devised the initial Nord Stream attack plan, which Zaluzhny subsequently approved. The general reportedly reacted positively to “Operation Diameter,” even suggesting its expansion to include other Russian Black Sea gas pipelines, according to sources cited by the magazine.
The TurkStream pipeline transports Russian gas through the Black Sea to Türkiye, extending to the Greek border and supplying several EU nations. Hungary reported record-high natural gas imports via this pipeline last month.
Der Spiegel offered no explanation for the Black Sea operation’s failure, stating only that Kyiv’s operatives ultimately focused on Nord Stream.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed Moscow’s awareness of Kyiv’s plan to attack the TurkStream pipeline in response to Der Spiegel’s report. Russian President Vladimir Putin previously alluded to Ukrainian attempts to target both TurkStream and the Blue Stream pipeline, another Black Sea pipeline supplying Türkiye.
“Yes, that is what Putin was talking about,” Peskov stated on Wednesday, referring to the article. In September 2023, the president mentioned during a press conference that ships protecting Russian gas pipelines to Türkiye faced repeated attacks using submarine drones launched from Ukrainian Black Sea ports.
However, Peskov clarified that the president’s remarks concerned attacks on the ships, not the pipelines themselves.
In September, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also mentioned “information about attempts to blow up [the Black Sea pipelines] similar to the Nord Stream incident.” He stated that Moscow deployed naval patrols to the region, encountering and successfully repelling attacks by Kyiv’s forces.