“These incidents show that the energy infrastructure is not safe,” Viktorija Cmilyte-Nielsen, speaker of the Lithuanian parliament, told local radio on Wednesday. “This can be interpreted as a warning.”
Danish and Swedish authorities on Monday detected underwater explosions and reported three breaches on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines, spilling tonnes of methane into the Baltic Sea. Seismologists in Denmark and Sweden said the two explosions they detected did not appear to be earthquakes, landslides or other natural activity.
“These incidents are no coincidence and affect us all,” said EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell. said. “All available information indicates that these leaks were the result of a deliberate act.” He called the disruption “completely unacceptable”.
In its statement on Wednesday, the Council of the European Union said all information indicated the leaks were the result of a “deliberate act” and that any disruption to Europe’s energy infrastructure would be met “with a strong response.” and united”.
What form such a response would take was not immediately clear.
Danish Defense Minister Morten Boedskov met NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Brussels on Wednesday morning to discuss what they called pipeline “sabotage”.
“There are reasons to be concerned about the security situation in the Baltic Sea region,” Boedskov said in a statement afterwards. “Russia has a significant military presence in the Baltic Sea region and we expect it to continue its saber-clapping.”
The statements come after several European officials on Tuesday blamed the Kremlin for the incidents and suggested they were seen as a threat.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said such claims by European leaders were “predictably stupid” and “absurd”, during a call with reporters. Russia had no interest in damaging the pipeline because of the high value of the gas, he said, which due to the leak had been lost.
Peskov said the situation “requires dialogue and operational interaction between all parties to find out what happened as soon as possible,” he said, complaining about the lack of communication between the Europeans and Russia. .
He suggested the US government was behind the blasts, pointing to President Biden’s comment in February that there would be “no more Nord Stream 2” if Russia invaded Ukraine.
A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive issue, said the US had nothing to do with the attack on the Nord Stream pipeline, calling the idea a “absurd”.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, who has also accused Biden of being behind the explosions, said Russia would convene a UN Security Council meeting about them.
Citing people familiar with the matter, German newspaper Der Spiegel reported that US intelligence officials warned the German government a few weeks ago of possible pipeline attacks.
Following the explosions, many European governments are now putting their energy infrastructure on heightened alert.
“After what happened in the Baltic Sea, the Norwegian Armed Forces will be more present and more visible in the areas around our oil and gas installations,” Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said. He noted, however, that at present the country has no indication of direct threats.
Danish Climate Minister Dan Jorgensen told reporters it might take at least a week to stop the flow of gas from the surface of the Baltic Sea. The shallow depth of the pipeline – around 75 meters below the ocean surface – means that it is technically possible to repair it, scientists say, but repairs are likely to be a matter of political will.
A mass of methane bubbles first seen on the sea surface Monday morning, according to satellite images reviewed by The Washington Post, stretched about 13 miles in diameter. The image was taken before the second explosion was recorded by seismic sensors.
Ocean water can absorb some methane, a greenhouse gas 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide, for the first 20 years after it is released into the atmosphere, but the large amounts of bubbles may suggest the water has reached saturation.
The shallow depth of the pipe means there is less water to absorb the methane before it reaches the surface. Scientists say the release, while not good, is unlikely to put a statistically significant dent in the overall greenhouse gas budget.
Emily Rauhala in Karsto, Norway and Robyn Dixon in Riga, Latvia and John Hudson contributed to this report.
