The area surrounding the Nord Stream pipeline leaks in the Baltic Sea will be sealed off, according to Swedish prosecutors, while the suspected sabotage is being looked into.
The prosecutor in charge made the decision to “seal off the area in order to undertake a crime scene investigation” to forward the investigation into “aggravated sabotage,” according to a statement from the Swedish Prosecution Authority.
Mats Ljungqvist, the public defender, stated that “the inquiry continues; we are at an intensive stage.”
I am aware of the strong public interest, but since the preliminary inquiry is still in its early stages, I am unable to comment on specifics on the investigative steps we are doing.
The prosecutor’s decision to prohibit access within five nautical miles (9.26 kilometres) of the pipeline was enforced beginning on Monday, according to a statement from Sweden’s coastguard.
The coast guard explained that the prohibition included “a ban on driving ships, anchoring, diving, fishing, operating underwater vehicles, or carrying out geophysical mapping.”
All four of the leaks, which were found on September 26 off the coast of Bornholm in Denmark, are in the Baltic Sea.
The Swedish exclusive economic zone contains two of the leaks, while the Danish zone contains the other two.
Although bubbles from a smaller leak could still be visible above Nord Stream 2 on Monday afternoon, the Swedish coastguard stated that it could no longer monitor gas from the Nord Stream 1 pipeline breach.
The pipes were constructed to carry Russian gas to Germany. The explosions were most certainly intentionally set off, according to the Swedish government, which has so far refrained from speculating about who might be responsible.
According to a joint letter sent by the governments of Sweden and Denmark to the United Nations Security Council, the explosions were most likely caused by hundreds of kilograms of explosives, Danish TV2 reported on Friday.
The detonations must be regarded in context of the security policy position, according to Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson, who stated this at a press conference on September 28.
The Swedish Security Service announced that it had started a criminal investigation into “gross sabotage” in a news release that same day.
