NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg noted that the military alliance believes that Russia's Nord Stream pipeline suffered damage as a result of sabotage.
The NATO chief warned that any attack on the military alliance's infrastructure will be met with a "firm" and "unified" response. Stoltenberg argued that all of the evidence available pointed once again to the idea that the incident was deliberate sabotage.
Nord Stream Pipeline Leaks
The official's remarks were made during an appearance on Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," where he said that what was important now is support the ongoing investigation. The probe could result in the best possible picture of what may have happened and provide authorities with all of the facts.
The Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipeline systems, which are responsible for distributing oil and gas from Russia to Germany, suffered unprecedented damage last week due to mysterious explosions. Authorities recorded three leaks on the same day that prompted allegations of sabotage, which Moscow officials acknowledged as a possibility, as per Fox News.
A German government official said that they could not imagine a scenario that was not a targeted attack on the pipeline systems. They noted that everything speaks against a coincidence that it was an accident.
The situation comes as, in August, the Nord Stream 1 pipeline entirely shut down service when authorities insisted that sanctions against Russia over its war on Ukraine made it impossible to maintain and repair the system. On the other hand, the Nord Stream 2 pipeline was never officially operational.
According to the Voice of America News, in a statement, ambassadors to NATO reiterated the military alliance's chief's remarks regarding a response to any attacks on its allies' critical infrastructure. They also noted that the four ruptures in the pipeline systems were of "deep concern."
Act of Sabotage
NATO, despite not naming anyone or any nation for the sabotage of the pipeline systems, said that the leaks are causing risks to shipping and substantial environmental damage. On Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the leaks in the Nord Stream pipelines would not have been possible without a state actor's involvement.
The spokesman said that the incident looked like a "terror attack," suggesting that it was probably conducted on a state level. On the other hand, Russian President Vladimir Putin told Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that "international terrorism" was responsible for the alleged attack.
Peskov noted that the amount of destruction of the Nord Stream pipeline pointed to a deep level of state involvement. He added that the incident is a very dangerous situation that requires a "quick" investigation."
United States President Joe Biden also called the leaks a "deliberate act of sabotage" and accused Putin of "pumping out disinformation and lies," but stopping short of directly accusing Moscow of being responsible for the incident.
The American president's words were the first time that he had directly asserted that the Nord Stream pipeline leaks were a result of sabotage and not an accident. He pushed back on Russia's narrative about the incident amid Moscow's escalating efforts to claim Ukraine's territory, CNN reported.
