TEHRAN- Western leaders anxiously await developments on the Nord Stream explosions as more reports emerge contradicting their account that Russia was behind the sabotage.

After three of the four pipelines which form Russia’s Nord Stream 1 and 2 undersea gas supply to Germany were destroyed by explosions September 2022, Western officials were quick to point the finger of blame at Moscow.

They made strong TV arguments that Russia wanted to punish the West, in response to sanctions on Moscow’s energy, by destroying the Nord Stream Gas pipelines and effectively cutting off all gas supplies to Europe ahead of winter and make households suffer further.  

But the narrative never quite made sense in the first place as even Western pundits struggled to explain why Russia would destroy its vital multibillion-dollar infrastructure projects, when the Kremlin could have simply closed the pipelines’ taps.

Also why would Russia blow up its own pipelines, even if they were not fully operational at the time, they remained an avenue to resume gas exports in the future.

Now more Western news media outlets are citing sources including U.S. officials saying that their intelligence suggests a pro-Ukrainian group sabotaged the pipelines.

Other reports have explained how the nature of such a sophisticated operation makes it a state-backed terrorist attack.

But which country has the most interest in destroying the Russian pipelines that supplied cheap gas to Europe?

Moscow initially accused the United Kingdom of staging the attack but later revised its own intelligence gathering to label the United States was the main perpetrator.

According to the New York Times, the U.S. intelligence review suggests those who carried out the attacks opposed the Russian Federation "but does not specify the members of the group, or who directed or paid for the operation."

"Officials who have reviewed the intelligence said they believed the saboteurs were most likely Ukrainian or Russian nationals, or some combination of the two. U.S. officials said no American or British nationals were involved," the NYT added.

Germany, Sweden and Denmark have already launched probes into the incident; however, Russia wants an international investigation under a neutral UN mechanism.

Last month, Russia gave the UN Security Council a draft resolution which (if adopted) would ask UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to establish an international, independent investigation committee to probe into the attack and who was responsible.

Russia's Deputy UN Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy has said the latest media reports made Russia's move at the United Nations as "very timely," telling Reuters that "by the end of March there definitely will be a vote" on the resolution.

Germany's ARD broadcaster and Zeit newspaper have reported that German authorities were able to identify the boat used for the sabotage operation.

A Poland-based company owned by Ukrainian citizens had hired a yacht for a group of five men and one woman, which used forged passports, the German media outlets reported. The nationality of the perpetrators is unclear, they reported.

Investigators found traces of explosives on the yacht, which the group took from Rostock, Germany on September 6, according to ARD and Zeit. They also reported that intelligence indicated that a pro-Ukrainian group could be behind the attack.

At a news conference in Stockholm, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg declined to comment on the media reports.  

Russia’s foreign ministry has said that Washington has questions to answer over its role in the undersea explosions.

The media revelations come shortly after revelations made by the award winning and respected American investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, who exposed the 1969 massacre of Vietnamese civilians by American forces. He also broke the story of American troops cruelly torturing Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib after the U.S. invasion of the country in 2003.

Hersh, citing an American source, said the U.S. military was directly involved in the blasts and that President Joe Biden green-lighted the terror act.

Quoting a source who chose to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the matter but with “direct knowledge of the operational planning”, Hersh detailed how “skilled deep-water divers” from the U.S. Navy planted C-4 explosives during a training exercise last June, then detonated the payload remotely three months later.

The latest reports emerging also say the “pro-Ukrainian group” behind the attack used fake passports to conduct the operation, which means they could have been U.S. special navy divers using Ukrainian passports.

“President Joseph Biden saw the pipelines as a vehicle for [Russian President] Vladimir Putin to weaponize natural gas for his political and territorial ambitions,” Hersh wrote.

Moscow says the U.S. and its NATO allies “have something to hide” and are intentionally blocking Russia from their investigation. 

The model and course of the vessel, which was reportedly used in preparation for the attack on the Nord Stream, was also named by the German journal Spiegel.

The Andromeda sailing yacht with a home port of Brege on the island of Rugen is reported to have transported explosive devices, the publication said, citing departmental sources.

According to Spiegel, the 15-meter Bavaria Cruiser 50 was chartered by unknown military experts through a Rugen charter firm. A photograph of the yacht was also included in the publication.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his top aides have denied involvement in the operation.

"U.S. officials declined to disclose the nature of the intelligence, how it was obtained or any details of the strength of the evidence. They have said that there were no firm conclusions about it," the NYT reported.

The reports that pro-Ukrainian actors were behind the sabotage will reduce the perceived Russian threat to European oil and gas infrastructure, but may also undermine Western support for Ukraine, especially among Republicans in Congress.

Experts say the U.S.-led NATO military alliance has the most logical potential motive to attack the pipelines. But analysts say any revelation that Ukraine also played a direct or indirect role could disrupt the delicate relationship between Ukraine and Germany, with the German public suffering like others in Europe who have been hit with extremely high energy prices.

Built by Russia's Gazprom, the Nord Stream gas pipelines connected Russia and Germany. Nord Stream 1 was completed in 2011, and Nord Stream 2 in 2021. Built by Gazprom, it was expected to enter service in 2022.

Early last year, President Biden, after meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at the White House, said any Russian move on Ukraine about whether to attack Ukraine would determine the fate of Nord Stream 2. “If Russia invades, that means tanks and troops crossing the border of Ukraine again, then there will no longer be a Nord Stream 2,” Biden said. “We will bring an end to it.”

When asked exactly how that would be accomplished, Biden cryptically said, “I promise you we’ll be able to do it.”

There have been similar statements made by senior U.S. officials that if a conflict erupted in Ukraine, Russia’s Nord Stream pipelines would no longer be operational. 

Former U.S. President Donald Trump imposed sanctions on both Russian and German firms for their ongoing work at the time to complete Nord Stream 2, drawing strong anger from Berlin. Washington has long wanted to replace cheap Russian gas supplies to Europe with its own liquified natural gas (LNG), which is vastly more expensive. 

This week, European officials in Brussels were reportedly taken aback by the latest revelations that Russia was not involved in the bombing.

If an independent UN investigation identifies the real perpetrators, European governments will find it very difficult to explain this to households back home, who have suffered the most from the Ukraine war amid an unprecedented cost-of-living crisis as a result of a Russian gas shortage.