Jesper Møller Sorensen, the state secretary for foreign policy at the Danish Foreign Ministry, told the Helsinki Security Forum on Saturday that falling gas pressure may soon allow a tri-nation joint investigative team to begin analyzing the damage, which NATO and European Union nations suspect—but have not yet confirmed—was caused by Russia.
“We are establishing a joint investigative team, it’s within the [European Union] framework, it will consist of Germany, Sweden, and Denmark as the most affected countries,” Sorenson said.
“Due to the gas leakage, it is not yet possible physically to access the point,” the diplomat added.
“My understanding is—but there have been discussions about when exactly—perhaps the first pipeline will be able to be accessed by tomorrow. And then there is some uncertainty about when the next one. It’s simply a matter of how much gas pressure is still coming out.”
“Within the next couple of days, certainly for the first pipeline, that should be possible,” Sorenson said.
Four explosions—equivalent to “several hundred kilograms of explosive” according to Denmark and Sweden—ruptured the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines earlier this week, releasing enormous amounts of methane gas into the water and atmosphere above. The four blasts occurred in international waters, with two in Denmark’s exclusive economic zone and two in Sweden’s.
The EU and NATO have so far not blamed Moscow directly for the explosions. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Wednesday: “All available information indicates those leaks are the result of a deliberate act.”
“Any deliberate disruption of European energy infrastructure is utterly unacceptable and will be met with a robust and united response.”
NATO released a new statement on Friday expressing “deep concern” and noting: “All currently available information indicates that this is the result of deliberate, reckless, and irresponsible acts of sabotage.”
Moscow has dismissed suggestions it was behind the blasts. “That’s quite predictable and also predictably stupid,” said Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday.
“This is a big problem for us because, firstly, both lines of Nord Stream 2 are filled with gas; the entire system is ready to pump gas and the gas is very expensive… Now the gas is flying off into the air.”
“Are we interested in that? No, we are not, we have lost a route for gas supplies to Europe.”
On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed Western adversaries for the explosions during an address to mark the annexation of four partially-occupied Ukrainian regions into Russia. The president blamed “Anglo-Saxons” for what he called “terror attacks” that “destroy the European energy infrastructure.”
“Those who profit from it have done it,” Putin said, without naming any specific nations.
President Joe Biden has condemned the incidents and vowed to uncover the cause. “It was a deliberate act of sabotage and the Russians are pumping out disinformation and lies,” Biden said Friday.
“At the appropriate moment, when things calm down, we’re going to be sending divers down to find out exactly what happened. We don’t know that yet exactly.”
In Helsinki on Saturday, Ine Eriksen Søreide, the chair of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence in the Norwegian parliament, said the explosions fit “into a pattern” of Russian behavior.
“Even though things have not been fully assessed yet, it’s fair to say that it is one country that has an interest in doing what has been done,” Søreide said. “That is Russia. So, even though it has not been attributed yet, I think it’s all the reason to believe that that’s the case.”
The pipelines run from Russia to Germany, and Nord Stream 1 has for several years been a key contributor to Germany’s overall energy needs. Nord Stream 2 was due to begin operation shortly before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, after which the project was shelved.
Nord Stream 1 has been non-operational since early September, with owner and Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom claiming it cannot carry out necessary repairs due to Western sanctions.
The Nord Stream program has long frustrated some of Germany’s EU and NATO partners, who have accused Berlin of overdependence on the pipelines, and therefore on Moscow. Ukraine, too, has railed against the pipelines and demanded they be shut off.
