Investigation into Nord Stream blasts does not affect German aid to Kiev — Cabinet

BERLIN, August 14. /TASS/. The results of the investigation into the explosions of the Nord Stream and Nord Stream-2 gas pipelines do not yet change Germany’s commitment to providing further support to Ukraine, German government spokesperson Wolfgang Buechner has told a news briefing in Berlin.
He noted that the investigation into the acts of sabotage against the gas pipelines was being carried out in accordance with the applicable legal procedure. The investigation will have no effect on whether Germany will continue to support Ukraine in the future and, if so, to what extent. As Buechner recalled, the Prosecutor General’s Office is in charge of the investigation with a “criminal component” and it “has nothing to do with the fact that, as the German Chancellor has repeatedly said, Germany will support Ukraine as long as necessary.”
Earlier, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, citing a joint investigation with the ARD TV channel and the Die Zeit newspaper, reported that the German Prosecutor-General’s Office had issued a warrant for the arrest of a Ukrainian diving instructor suspected of involvement in the Nord Stream bombing. Recently, as the newspaper wrote, he had been living in Poland. Now he has reportedly gone into hiding. The German prosecutor’s office, as the periodical says, suspects two more Ukrainian diving instructors of involvement in the sabotage against the Nord Streams. One of them is a woman. It is believed that all three could have been members of the crew of the sailing yacht Andromeda, which is in the focus of the German investigation. The vessel may have been used to deliver explosives to pipelines.
The German Prosecutor General’s Office has avoided commenting on this rumor to a TASS correspondent. Buechner said that the investigation into the explosions of the Nord Stream and Nord Stream-2 pipelines was of the highest priority for the German government.
Germany is the second largest arms supplier to Ukraine after the United States. Berlin’s military support for Kiev, both already provided and commitments to future expenditures, currently stand at 28 billion euros. Moscow has repeatedly stated that beefing up Ukraine’s military muscle will not reduce Russia’s resolve or change the course of the special military operation.