Probe into Nord Stream blasts making progress

The investigation into the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines in 2022 is making progress, according to Germany's top prosecutor.

"We have succeeded in identifying two suspects. In my view, this is a success that was not necessarily to be expected at the start," Public Prosecutor General Jens Rommel told the Spiegel newspaper on Saturday.

However, much remains to be done, Rommel said.

"The identity of other people involved, the motivation behind the offence and, in particular, the question of possible state control of the operation are the subject of ongoing investigations," he stated.

Commenting about possible Ukrainian involvement and the aim of the sabotage, Rommel said that the investigation was based on the fact that there was damage to the gas pipelines, which formed an important part of the German gas supply.

"This was a major attack on our country's energy supply that was capable of destabilizing the local economy and society - regardless of any political classification."

In September 2022, the two gas pipelines Nord Stream 1 and 2 were damaged by several explosions recorded near the Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea.

Shortly afterwards, four leaks were discovered in three of the four Nord Stream pipeline strands.

Russian natural gas previously flowed to Germany through Nord Stream 1. Nord Stream 2 was not yet in operation due to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and subsequent political tensions.

There has been intense and varied speculation about the perpetrators and masterminds behind the incidents.

In mid-August, it became known that Rommel's office was looking for a Ukrainian who had allegedly fled from Poland to his home country. He has not yet been caught.

According to the prosecutor, the overall threat situation in Germany is serious but not overwhelmingly so.

"We are living in troubled times. The dangers to our free and democratic basic order are manifold, they come from within, from outside and extend into everyday life in society," Rommel said, citing attacks this year by suspected terrorists in the cities of Mannheim and Solingen. 

"Security authorities are making considerable efforts to ward off these dangers," the prosecutor said.

According to Rommel, politically motivated crime has recently increased across the board: "It has increased significantly more on the right than on the left, but even more so with Islamist terrorism."

"I therefore find it difficult to prioritise them," he added.