The sabotage of Russia's Nord Stream gas pipeline in 2022 in the Baltic Sea was approved by the top Ukrainian leadership, including President Volodymyr Zelensky, the Wall Street Journal reports today. According to the US newspaper, citing Ukrainian military sources, the seaborne explosive attack was carried out under the supervision of the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian military at the time, Valery Zaluzhny, despite Zelensky's request that the plan be halted in the meantime.

The idea for the sabotage allegedly came up in May 2022 at a meeting of senior Ukrainian officers and heads of Ukrainian companies, three months after the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the WSJ said.

According to the newspaper, six people were directly involved in this operation, which cost almost 300 thousand US dollars, fully financed with private funds.

The newspaper said it was a small chartered yacht with a crew of six, including trained civilian divers. One was a woman, whose presence helped create the illusion that they were a group of friends on a cruise.

"I always laugh when I read media speculation about some huge operation involving the Secret Service, submarines, drones and satellites," said one officer who was involved in the plot, according to the Wall Street Journal. "The whole thing was born out of a night of heavy drinking and the iron determination of a few men who had the courage to risk their lives for their country."

"Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky initially approved the plan, according to one official who attended the meeting and three people familiar with the plan," the WSJ reported. "But later, when the CIA found out about the plan and demanded that it be stopped, Zelensky ordered it to be stopped," the newspaper adds. However, Valery Zaluzhny ignored this order and his team modified the original plan.

After the Nord Stream sabotage in September 2022, Zelensky demanded an explanation from Zaluzhny, who replied that it was too late, claiming that he could no longer communicate with the saboteurs because any contact could jeopardize the operation.

The Wall Street Journal said it spoke to four senior Ukrainian defense and security officials who either participated in or had direct knowledge of the plot. All have declared that the pipelines are a legitimate target in Ukraine's defense war against Russia.

Parts of their involvement were confirmed by a nearly two-year investigation by German police into the attack, which obtained evidence including emails, mobile and satellite phone communications, as well as fingerprints and DNA samples from the alleged sabotage team. The investigation in Germany did not directly link President Zelenski to the secret operation, the American newspaper writes.

Zaluzhny, now Ukraine's ambassador to the UK, told the newspaper that he knew nothing of any such operation and that any suggestion to the contrary was "mere provocation". The Armed Forces of Ukraine, he added, were not authorized to carry out missions abroad and therefore he would not be involved in such a thing.

A senior official of Ukraine's main intelligence service, the SBU, denied that his government had anything to do with the sabotage and said that Zelensky in particular "did not approve the implementation of any such actions on the territory of third countries and did not issue relevant orders."

German media are more cautious when it comes to blaming the Ukrainian authorities, especially Zelensky, but mention possible involvement of Zaluzhny.