Dutch broadcaster NOS is reporting that the Dutch military intelligence agency MIVD is the service that briefed the US last June about Ukrainian plans to blow up the Nord Stream gas pipeline. 

NOS, and German media Die Zeit and Ard say that the CIA received an “alarming message” from the MIVD that had heard from a source in Ukraine about Ukrainian plans for an “imminent attack”. The CIA then warned Ukraine not to proceed, NOS said. 

Last September, the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines, linking Russia to Germany through the Baltic Sea, were targeted by two blasts in what NOS says is “virtually the same scenario” as the MIVD had exposed three months previously.

Last week the Washington Post reported in detail about the sabotage plan, saying that the information was collected by a European intelligence service and shared with the CIA in June 2022.

Responsibility for the explosion has not yet been determined and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has denied any responsibility. 

The MIVD has declined to comment on the media reports. However, NOS said, sources suggest the Americans must have been tipped off by defense minister Kajsa Ollongren and possibly prime minister Mark Rutte and foreign affairs minister Wopke Hoekstra. 

According to international news agency AFP, Ollongren has “seen the news” but declined to comment. 

The plan which the MIVD uncovered involved a small team of divers who would carry out the sabotage from a sailing boat on the orders of general Valery Zaluzhny, Ukraine’s highest-ranking military officer. Zelenskyy did not know about the plan, NOS said.  

The Washington Post reported last week that the CIA initially questioned the credibility of the information, partly because the Ukrainian source did not have a track record. “The European service, a trusted US partner, felt that the source was reliable,” the paper said. 

While Russian gas giant Gazprom owns 51% of Nord Stream, Western energy companies, including from the Netherlands, Germany and France are also partners.