US Navy warships were operating in the area with their transponders switched off, according to Politiken.
Danish newspaper Politiken reported that US Navy vessels were operating in the vicinity of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines in the Baltic Sea shortly before the explosions that damaged them. The source of this information is a local harbormaster.
The Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, critical energy infrastructure designed to deliver Russian natural gas to Germany and the rest of Europe, were damaged by underwater explosions in September 2022.
Politiken published its article on September 26, but it largely went unnoticed. However, the article resurfaced on Tuesday on X (formerly Twitter) and was shared by prominent independent journalists, including Glenn Greenwald.
The article states that American warships were operating in the area east of the Danish island of Bornholm with their transponders switched off.
Politiken spoke to John Anker Nielsen, the harbormaster at the Danish port of Christianso, which is located near Bornholm. He said he decided to share details of the events of September 2022, even though he was initially “not allowed to say a thing” about them.
According to Nielsen, he launched a rescue operation in the area four or five days before the Nord Stream explosions after spotting ships with their transponders switched off, assuming there was an emergency.
However, when Danish rescuers arrived at the scene, they discovered that the vessels in question were US Navy ships, said Nielsen. The Naval Command then instructed Nielsen and his colleagues to turn back, he recalled.
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