Investigators find traces of explosives on ship linked to Nord Stream sabotage

The New York Times reports that the pleasure boat Andromeda, which is the focus of the German investigation, docked in the Christiansø stone harbor after being rented from the northern German port of Rostock on September 5 and stopped overnight in Wick, a lesser-known northern German port with no security cameras and little surveillance.

A local port worker, who asked not to be named because of the ongoing investigation, told The New York Times that he remembers the visit: he repeatedly tried to speak to the crew, first in German, then in English. Instead of trying to respond in either language, one man simply handed him the parking fee and turned away.

The Andromeda is now in a dry dock overlooking the Baltic Sea, its parts being recovered by investigators. Three German officials told journalists that investigators found traces of explosives on the ship and discovered that two crew members used fake Bulgarian passports.

• On the night of September 26, 2022, a sudden drop in pressure occurred in the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. On September 27, it became known that gas from the Russian Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline had leaked into the Baltic Sea on the eve of the launch of the Baltic Sea pipeline.

• Later, the UN Security Council rejected a draft resolution condemning the sabotage of Nord Stream and calling for an international investigation into the pipeline bombings.

• The Danish Energy Agency said that the object adjacent to the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline was an empty offshore smoke buoy.