NEWS reports from Germany and the United States claim that a pro-Ukrainian group was behind the blowing up of the Nord Stream gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea last September.

German daily newspaper Die Zeit and public broadcasters ARD and SWR reported on Tuesday that investigators were able to largely reconstruct how the pipelines from Russia to Germany were sabotaged on the night of September 26 2022.

Citing multiple unnamed officials, the news outlets reported that five men and a woman used a yacht hired by a Ukrainian-owned company in Poland to carry out the attack. 

The New York Times also reported on Tuesday that US intelligence is suggesting a pro-Ukrainian group was behind the blasts. 

The Times said US President Joe Biden and his top aides did not authorise the attack. 

This follows an article last month by award-winning investigative reporter Seymour Hersh, which accused the US of ordering the bombing under cover of a Nato exercise.

According to Mr Hersh, the Norwegian divers helped US divers set the remotely triggered explosives under the pipelines in June 2022. 

Washington and its allies have denied Mr Hersh’s accusation.

Germany’s Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said he had read the news reports “with great interest,” but warned against drawing hasty conclusions.

“We need to clearly differentiate whether it was a Ukrainian group that acted on the orders of Ukraine or without the government’s knowledge,” he told reporters.

Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov rejected suggestions that the attack might have been ordered by Kyiv. 

He told reporters: “It’s a compliment to our special forces, but this is not our activity.”

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby declined to comment on the New York Times report, noting that investigations by Denmark, Germany, and Sweden remain active.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the latest media reports as a co-ordinated manipulation intended to cover up the organisers of the attack.

He said: “The masterminds of the terror attack clearly want to distract attention.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his officials have accused the US of staging the pipeline explosions, which they described as a terror attack.

Jan Oberg, director of the Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research, said that once the reporting of Mr Hersh is vindicated and the role of US navy forces proven, “Europeans will wake up and finally understand that they no longer share interests with the US.”