Who Blew Up the Nord Stream Pipeline?

Summary

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Lawless Planet – "Who Blew Up the Nord Stream Pipeline?"

Podcast: Lawless Planet
Host: Zach Goldbaum
Date: September 22, 2025

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Overview

This episode of Lawless Planet examines the shocking destruction of the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea—widely described as the single largest methane leak in history. Host Zach Goldbaum guides listeners through a tangled web of geopolitics, energy dependency, espionage, and environmental impact. The question driving the episode: Who sabotaged the pipelines—and why? Goldbaum, with insights from German investigative journalist Holger Stark, meticulously reconstructs the timeline, sifts through theories, and highlights the global stakes of this real-life thriller at the heart of Europe's energy crisis.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Attack: Setting the Scene

• [00:00–03:28]
  • In September 2022, a mysterious group aboard the sailboat Andromeda is believed to have placed explosives on the Nord Stream pipelines.
  • Ten days later, European authorities detect a massive, continuous methane eruption in the Baltic Sea. The economic and political fallout is immediate.
  • Quote:
    "They don't know it yet, but they've just reported what may be the single largest methane leak in recorded history."
    – Zach Goldbaum [02:28]

2. The Pipeline's Past: Energy, Dependency, and Politics

• [05:15–10:41]
  • Goldbaum provides context for the Nord Stream pipelines' construction, focusing on how they bypassed Ukraine and reinforced Germany’s energy reliance on Russia.
  • Holger Stark explains how Germany’s quest for cheap gas led to a dangerous dependency orchestrated by Russia's Putin.
  • Quotes:
    "Nord Stream for Germany always was a tool to obtain cheap gas. Putin did that intentionally to lure Germany into an economic connection and also a dependency."
    – Holger Stark [08:31]
  • Ukraine’s loss of pipeline transit revenue and its protection role foreshadowed growing vulnerability, culminating in Russia's annexation of Crimea.

3. The War and the Energy Crisis

• [11:29–14:13]
  • Tensions heighten in early 2022 as Russia masses troops near Ukraine. Western leaders use the fate of Nord Stream 2 as potential leverage, but Russia invades anyway.
  • Gas remains a bargaining chip and a point of vulnerability throughout the conflict.
  • Quote:
    "We will bring an end to it."
    – Joe Biden on Nord Stream 2 if Russia invades [12:22]

4. Sabotage Confirmed: Unraveling the Mystery

• [15:57–17:37]
  • The methane leaks are swiftly identified as deliberate sabotage, sparking speculation—was it Russia, the US, or an unknown operator?
  • Holger Stark’s initial instincts point to Russia, recalling previous false flag operations.

5. Conspiracy & Investigation: Tracking Leads

• [17:37–20:45]
  • Theories swirl: Some see US motives, especially after Seymour Hersh’s controversial report suggests direct US involvement. The report is met with skepticism.
  • Holger Stark refuses to follow Hersh’s example, focusing instead on concrete evidence and verifiable sources.

6. Breakthrough: The Andromeda Trail

• [21:06–25:22]
  • Goldbaum and Stark present the investigative turning point—German police shift focus from large industrial ships to an inconspicuous yacht. The Andromeda is revealed via charter records tied to a Ukrainian national.
  • Evidence including DNA, personal effects, and traces of explosives links the boat to the attack.
  • Quote:
    "They found hairs, a base cap, a T-shirt... scratches all over the platform. Some really heavy devices obviously have been on that platform. And they also found some tiny traces of explosives."
    – Holger Stark [24:51]

7. The Suspects: Piecing Together Identities

• [25:33–32:13]
  • Authorities focus in on six crew members—five men and one woman—seen moving and acting suspiciously along the Baltic ports.
  • A crucial clue: a speeding ticket photo places Volodymyr Z., a Ukrainian diving instructor, at the scene. He escapes prosecution thanks to political reluctance in Poland, and is spirited back to Ukraine.
  • Quote:
    "The hatred against the Russians in Poland is unbelievable... so the question is, what do you do with such a hot potato that's coming from Germany?"
    – Holger Stark [31:20]

8. The Motive: Ukraine's Gamble

• [32:13–34:26]
  • Reporting by the Wall Street Journal uncovers a fateful meeting of Ukrainian leaders and businesspeople, where a plan is hatched to destroy the pipeline as an economic attack on Russia.
  • Questions of authorization remain. Did President Zelensky approve it? Was it American-supported?
  • Quote:
    "The Ukrainians never would be able to do a very sophisticated operation without American training. That doesn't mean necessarily that this was jointly planned, but the logistical support in general by the Americans is extremely important."
    – Holger Stark [35:01]

9. Fallout & Broader Lessons

• [34:26–37:16]
  • One Ukrainian is arrested in Italy, but who ordered the hit remains a mystery.
  • The destruction of Nord Stream—meant to bolster European security—inadvertently accelerates Europe’s green energy transition. German carbon emissions drop to a 70-year low.
  • Quote:
    "For the Germans, Nord Stream and the Russian invasion was the end of a lie or an illusion."
    – Holger Stark [35:38]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "What happened that night aboard the Andromeda remains a mystery..." — Zach Goldbaum [00:28]
• "It's such an overwhelming story... almost impossible for one reporter to break a story and bring it home safely." — Holger Stark (on team collaboration) [23:17]
• "Reality is sometimes writing the best thrillers. So if you would be a scriptwriter, you couldn't imagine a better plot with better twists than this one." — Holger Stark [16:49]
• "When that illusion was shattered, a small sliver of good news did begin to emerge... Europe finally confronted what had been keeping the light bulb on." — Zach Goldbaum [35:47]

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Important Timestamps

• 00:00–03:28 — Introduction and summary of the Nord Stream sabotage
• 05:15–10:41 — Origins, geopolitical context, and economic dependencies
• 13:57–14:13 — Russian invasion of Ukraine; gas supply crisis
• 16:16–17:37 — The first public realization of sabotage
• 21:06–25:22 — Discovery of Andromeda and key physical evidence
• 31:20–32:13 — Politics of the arrest warrant and evasion of suspects
• 34:26–35:47 — Immediate aftermath, European response, and net-zero acceleration

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Conclusion

In this high-stakes episode, Lawless Planet pieces together a real-life geopolitical thriller, tracing the sabotage of a key energy pipeline from murky motives, through an improbable investigation, to profound consequences for Europe and the climate. The lingering ambiguity—who ordered the operation and with whose blessing—encapsulates the episode’s final warning: behind every environmental disaster is a tangle of covert agendas, sometimes with unexpected (and not always catastrophic) outcomes.

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Transcript

[Zach Goldbaum]

Wondry subscribers can listen to new episodes of Lawless Planet early and ad free right now. Join Wondry in the Wondry app or on Apple Podcasts. Late one night in mid September of 2022, a white 50 foot sailboat bobs in the Baltic Sea. On the side of the vessel, just above the waterline, is its name, Andromeda. Andromeda was the heroine of a Greek myth about hubris, revenge, and a monster rising from the depths of the sea. That's some heavy foreshadowing, in case that wasn't clear. What happened that night aboard the Andromeda remains a mystery, but it seems that at some point, several people in wetsuits drag a heavy device across the deck. They pull it onto the diving platform at the rear of the boat. Then they jump into the water and disappear into the night. About a week and a half later, a Danish navy aircraft glides low over the Baltic. The pilot scans the horizon and spots a pocket of choppy water in the distance. He flies toward it. As he gets closer, he realizes he's found what he's looking for. A vast ring of sea, half a mile wide is fizzing and bubbling like a stew. Later that day, about 50 miles away, some German sailors are standing on the deck of a freight ship passing through the Baltic. Suddenly, there's a low, quaking rumble beneath the ocean. A few seconds later, there's another tremor. And then, after a pause, it happens a third. An officer grabs binoculars and scans the horizon in the direction of the noise. Off in the distance, he notices something unusual. A dense cloud hanging above the water. He radios the sighting to his headquarters. The sailors don't know it yet, but they've just reported what may be the single largest methane leak in recorded history. By some estimates, it's the equivalent of a day and a half of methane emissions for the entire planet. The gas continues bubbling for a week. The plumes are coming from a set of undersea natural gas pipelines called the Nord Stream. The damage is extensive. One of the pipelines has a 600 foot hole blown into it. The cost of repairing this sabotage will run into the billions. But the political consequences are of even greater concern because the pipelines supply Russian natural gas to much of the European Union. Heads of state across the world call emergency meetings to discuss the matter. They are all asking the same two questions. Who bombed the Nord Stream pipelines? And why? From Wondry, I'm Zach Goldbaum, and this is Lawless Planet. Each week we tell a new story about the true crimes fueling the climate crisis and the people fighting to save the planet or destroy it.

[Joe Biden]

Tonight, sabotage at sea. That's what President Biden is calling the leaks and explosions on the Nord Stream pipelines.

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[Holger Stark]

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[Zach Goldbaum]

Foreign invaded Ukraine in February of 2022. It was more than just a war between a superpower and its smaller neighbor. It was also a messy breakup between one of the world's biggest suppliers of oil and gas and its clients in the West. For regular people, that meant it suddenly cost more money to fill up your tank or heat your home, at least in the immediate aftermath. Yet another data point to bolster my controversial War is bad. But of course, it wasn't bad for everyone. As the war in Ukraine has dragged on, there's already one clear winner the fossil fuel industry. According to one analysis, the top five oil companies profits grew by 125% in the war's first year alone, thanks to spikes in fuel costs, most of which were passed on to customers. This isn't New. Whenever geopolitical shocks happen, from the Iranian oil crisis of the 1970s to the Iraq war, it sets off a fossil fuel bonanza. Take one player out of the market, and like clockwork, others will swoop in to fill the void. But the explosion of the Nord Stream pipelines did represent something new, something different. These pipelines not only physically connected Russia to Europe, but they entwined historic enemies through common interest. Now that those ties were severed, maybe irreparably, what exactly would that mean for the future of energy and in turn, the climate? That's former German Chancellor Angela Merkel talking to reporters in 2011 about a project that at the time seemed like a giant leap for German Russian relations. That project was the Nord Stream one, a pair of natural gas pipelines running from Russia through the Gulf of Finland straight to Germany. On paper, it was brilliant. Germany would get direct access to as much Russian gas as they wanted, and Russia would lock in a permanent customer in the heart of Europe. So in November 2011, after 14 years and $8 billion, the Nord Stream 1 went operational. There was some light fanfare for the occasion. Photographers took photos of Merkel and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev smiling and pretending to turn a valve. But unless you're a big fan of natural gas, you probably didn't pay much attention at the time.

[Holger Stark]

I didn't cover Nordstream in the first place because honestly, I underestimated it's significance.

[Zach Goldbaum]

Holger Stark is an investigative reporter for the German national paper Dieseit. He'd made a name for himself covering stories like Guantanamo and government surveillance. So a gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea seemed pretty dull by comparison.

[Holger Stark]

The political dimension only became more clear after every other European country went ballistic.

[Zach Goldbaum]

Poland, Ukraine and the Baltic States immediately recognized the implications of such a project.

[Holger Stark]

Nord Stream for Germany always was a tool to obtain cheap gas. Putin did that intentionally to lure Germany into an economic connection and also a dependency.

[Zach Goldbaum]

The pipeline traveled through the Baltic Sea, which meant it bypassed countries like Ukraine, who had previously collected lucrative transit fees from Russia.

[Holger Stark]

Before Nord Stream, there was a constant flow of gas through a Ukrainian pipeline, which gave some kind of like, life insurance for the Ukrainian government, because they always thought as long as gas is flowing through a pipeline on Ukrainian territory, the Russians would not invade their country.

[Zach Goldbaum]

As soon as Ukraine lost its role as Europe's energy intermediary, that's exactly what happened next.

[News Anchor]

We turn tonight to the tension rising around the world as Russian President Vladimir Putin casts his shadow across the boundary of Europe and Russia. Tonight, his troops are holding firm in a Corner of Ukraine known as Crimea. So will he push any further? And has the US and its allies decided to push back?

[Zach Goldbaum]

On February 27, 2014, more than 100 gunmen storm a government building in Crimea, an autonomous region in Ukraine bordering Russia. They're heavily armed with sniper rifles and rocket propelled grenades. While the gunmen barricade themselves inside, protests erupt in the streets. Police respond, but they're outnumbered. Two protesters are killed in the chaos. Gunmen in fatigues remove the Crimean flag from the government building and hoist a different one in its place. Three horizontal stripes of white, blue and red. Russia has claimed control of Crimea. Within weeks, the Crimean parliament is dissolved. Pro Russian officials are installed in their place. An urgent vote is called and a referendum passed, officially annexing Crimea to Russia. American and European Union leaders condemn the annexation as illegal. But one country is curiously quiet at.

[Holger Stark]

The time of the invasion of Crimea. So in the years around 2014, 2015, it became a big international concern what Germany is doing. But there was little debate within Germany itself.

[Zach Goldbaum]

That's because even as Russia was becoming more and more politically isolated, Germany had grown highly dependent on Russia's gas. In fact, since 2011, three years before the invasion of Crimea, Germany had been planning a second pipeline with Russia, Nord Stream 2. And despite the crisis in Crimea, construction on the new pipeline moves forward by 2021. Nord Stream 2 is complete, but the timing could not be worse.

[Joe Biden]

Mr. President, I have wanted to ask you about this Nord Stream project that you've long opposed.

[Zach Goldbaum]

It's February 7, 2022. President Joe Biden and the new Chancellor of Germany, Olaf Scholz, are holding a joint press conference at the White House. In the last few months, 100,000 Russian troops have gathered at the Ukrainian border. And the press corps wants to know what does Russia's latest aggression mean for the Nord Stream 2?

[Joe Biden]

Did you receive assurances from Chancellor Scholz today that Germany will in fact pull the plug on this project if Russia invades Ukraine?

[Zach Goldbaum]

If Russia invades, that means tanks or troops crossing the border of Ukraine again. Then there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it.

[Joe Biden]

How will you do that exactly? Since the project and control of the project is within Germany's control, I promise.

[Zach Goldbaum]

You, we'll be able to do it. Before anyone can get clarity on what sounds like a vague threat, it's Chancellor Schultz's turn to answer questions, or in this case, dodge them.

[Olaf Scholz]

We will be united. We will act together, and we will take all the necessary steps, and all the necessary steps will be done by.

[Joe Biden]

All of us together day to turning off and playing pulling the plug on Nord Stream 2. You didn't mention it. You haven't mentioned it.

[Olaf Scholz]

As I already said, we are acting together. We are absolutely united and we will not take different steps. We will do the same steps, and they will be very, very hard to Russia and they should understand.

[Zach Goldbaum]

But all the tough talk from Scholz and Biden does nothing to dissuade Russia from advancing on Ukraine. This is Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on February 23, 2022, making an emotional plea directly to the Russian people. If you try to take our country away from us, we will defend ourselves, he says. And when you attack, you will see not our backs, but our faces. The following day, Russia invades.

[Joe Biden]

After months of preparations, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin has launched a major military operation against Ukraine. Loud explosions have been now heard in Ukraine, in lots of different cities, as the Russian assault has begun.

[Zach Goldbaum]

Russian tanks roll through Ukrainian towns. Drones fire missiles into apartment buildings. Ukrainians scatter and take shelter. Zelenskyy's first concern is mobilizing Ukraine's forces to slow Russia's advance. His second concern is broadcasting Russia's aggression to the world. On social media, he shares updates about the fighting and rallies support for Ukraine. It works. Europe and much of the Western world rally behind Ukraine. Even Germany throws its support behind Ukraine. Sort of. They delay certification of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, effectively preventing it from coming online. But gas continues to flow through Nord Stream 1 until. On September 2, six months after the invasion, Russia announces that it's closing the Nord Stream 1 pipeline indefinitely. They've been reducing exports without explanation for months. But now they blame faulty equipment, declining to say when or if there will be repairs. As the gas stops flowing, panic simmers across Europe. Without Russian energy, entire industries will have to shutter. The ripple effects on the global economy could be seismic. One European minister accuses Russia of using gas as a weapon of war. Germany tries to walk a tightrope. On the one hand, they don't want to be seen as appeasing Russia while it's invading Ukraine. On the other, they need to find a way to get the gas flowing again. Then what happens next will make that impossible.

[Holger Stark]

I was sitting in front of the TV and was watching the evening news.

[Zach Goldbaum]

Journalist Holger Stark again.

[Holger Stark]

And they showed the Baltic Sea where it looked like a whirlpool. So bubbles of gas were going up and I thought, like, wow.

[Zach Goldbaum]

It'S September 26th and less than a month after the Nord Stream 1 was shut down. It's now leaking methane gas into the Baltic Sea. It's not clear yet what caused the leaks, but Holger thinks he knows.

[Holger Stark]

My first reaction was this is nothing natural. Being a reporter for more than 25 years, I immediately knew this is some kind of sabotage operation. The big question was who's behind it.

[Zach Goldbaum]

That question would send Holger Stark on a years long journey to uncover the truth.

[Holger Stark]

The story is something between Netflix and James Bond. Reality is sometimes writing the best thrillers. So if you would be a scriptwriter, you couldn't imagine a better plot with better twists than this one.

[Joe Biden]

Tonight, sabotage at sea.

[Holger Stark]

Authorities are investigating whether sabotage is the cause of leaks in the Nord Stream gas pipelines.

[Joe Biden]

Russia says it's launched a terrorism investigation over the damage and called for a meeting of the UN Security Security Council.

[Zach Goldbaum]

Questions fly in every newsroom in the world. What does this mean for the future of the war? How could this impact the global economy? And of course, who set the explosives?

[Holger Stark]

My very first thought was potentially possibly the Russians, because the Russians have a super sophisticated sabotage apparatus.

[Zach Goldbaum]

Holger isn't alone. Many fingers point at Putin. The reasoning is that if Russia will launch an unprovoked war, they're capable of other provocations, like bombing their own pipeline. Russia has a history of clandestine operations. They've used the poison Novochok to weaken or kill dissidents. And Putin himself has orchestrated false flag operations before. The most infamous one was in 1999 when Putin allegedly ordered a series of apartment bombings in Moscow and other cities, then blamed them on Chechen separatists. 300 people died. But Putin got his war in Chechnya. Admittedly, it may seem counterintuitive to blow up your own pipeline. Wouldn't that hurt Russia's economy as much as the EU's? Well, one theory is that Russia wanted to spark an energy crisis to weaken opposition to the war in Ukraine. Consider the timing. It's September. Winter is coming and destroying the Nord Stream one could cause a major spike in home heating costs for millions of Europeans. But Vladimir Putin goes on the defensive, redirecting blame at the West. But sanctions are not enough for the Anglo Saxons, he says. They have moved on to sabotage. And on February 8, 2023, a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter would publish a controversial report that supports Putin's claim. Seymour Hersh is a legendary American investigative journalist. He broke the story of the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War. He covered Watergate and the COVID US bombing of Cambodia, and helped expose America's torture program at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. But when he publishes an article entitled How America Took out the Nord Stream Pipeline, it raises some eyebrows. His piece details how the US bombed the Nord Stream pipelines to bolster German and EU support for Ukraine in the war against Russia. It is a plausible story. The US has a lot of reasons for wanting to destroy the Nord Stream. It cuts off a major source of income for Putin's war machine. It makes it easier for EU nations to support Ukraine without fear of Russia cutting off their gas. And since the start of the war, America's natural gas exports to Europe have increased by 100%. No more Nordstream could make those increases permanent. But Hirsch's story is based on just one anonymous source and no mainstream outlets will touch it. Hersh decides to publish it on his substack instead. It makes a splash in some circles, but the White House dismisses it. Most of the media remains skeptical, which doesn't mean Hersh isn't right. He just can't prove it. Holger Stark sees this and vows not to make the same mistake.

[Holger Stark]

I was fascinated by the idea that there is a secret commando placing explosives and blowing this thing up. So I asked my sources almost on a daily basis, what do you know about Nord Stream?

[Zach Goldbaum]

Finally, one of those sources gives Holger a surprising tip.

[Holger Stark]

We were sitting in a cafe and we're discussing a lot of other things. I can't reveal the identity of the source, but it was someone with direct, not only knowledge, but direct documents regarding that case. So someone who was in possession of first hand information. I asked my standard question, any idea who might be behind it? And that person looked into my eyes. And when you have some experience over the years meeting sources, even without saying something, you see that there is something. And that was such a moment. I saw that my source knew something. And this would not be the standard answer. So I still was a fan of the Russia theory at that time. So my expectation was, yeah, we have some hints towards Moscow. But he was shaking his head a little bit and hesitant to describe more. So I said like, is there something else? And there was a slight nod. And then I said like, can someone else be behind it? And another nod. And then we came to the point that there is a suspicion that Ukraine might be behind it.

[Zach Goldbaum]

If what Holger's source is telling him is true, it would change everything.

[Holger Stark]

So this became political from day one on. And it was very clear if the headline Ukraine is behind Nord Stream explosions would blow up as a political bomb, not only like a physical Bomb underwater.

[Zach Goldbaum]

After the tip from his source, Holger's investigation hits a wall. There was credible evidence that Ukraine was involved, but there was no smoking gun. German officials had not been able to find evidence of a military vessel or submarines. And without any idea of how the bombs were planted, they'd reached a dead end. So in early 2023, Holger decides to widen his net. He and some reporters from rival outlets joined forces to tackle the Nordstream story in this case.

[Holger Stark]

It's such an overwhelming story and such a difficult story at the same time, and a story which took place in so many different countries, other countries involved, that it's almost impossible for one reporter to break a story and bring it home safely, especially given the political sensitiveness that the story had from day one on.

[Zach Goldbaum]

Holger's decision soon pays off. One of his colleagues receives an explosive tip from German investigators.

[Holger Stark]

One of the police officers came up with the revolutionary idea and said, what if we are looking the wrong way? What if it was not an industrial vessel, a huge boat that everybody could spot on the Baltic Sea? Transponders would always make clear where those boats were. But what if the commander used a smaller vessel, a sailing boat that during the summer is widespread over the Baltic Sea, which doesn't use signal to send its locations?

[Zach Goldbaum]

Once investigators changed course, they were able to track down what they believed was the recreational vessel used to plant the bombs. A 50 foot sailing yacht named for a Greek myth about a sea monster, the Andromeda. Not long before the bombings, the Andromeda was chartered using an email address belonging to a Ukrainian national. Based on that clue, police got a warrant to search the boat where it was sitting in dry dock, untouched since its last voyage in late September.

[Holger Stark]

When the German police raided the boat in late January 2023, they found some hairs, they found a base cap, they found a T shirt that was obviously forgotten there. They realized that the bathing platform at the end of the boat was all over the place with scratches. So some really heavy devices obviously have been on that platform. And they also found some tiny traces of explosives.

[Zach Goldbaum]

As Holger and his colleagues continue to work the story, a picture of what really happened to the Nord Stream starts to emerge. Here is what we know.

[Holger Stark]

The Baltic Sea is one of the most crowded oceans in the world, especially in summertime. There are thousands and thousands of sailing boats passing from Germany to Denmark to Sweden to Finland, back and forth. The Baltic Sea is the most surveyed ocean in the world. It was a playground of the Cold War, so there are tons of sensors and other technical equipment, monitoring what's going on there. But when you use a smaller sailing boat, which is not producing much noise, there's a good chance to sneak out. Unidentified.

[Zach Goldbaum]

In early September 2022, a white van drives up to the harbor of Rostock, Germany. It's an upscale port town famous for picturesque public squares with medieval pastel colored buildings. Eyewitnesses will later describe seeing a group of men unloading equipment from a white van onto a 50 foot yacht, the Andromeda. Then, on September 7, at 2pm, a webcam captures the Andromeda sailing out from Rostock's harbor and into the Baltic Sea. From Rostock, the Andromeda sails northeast to another German harbor town, Wik. While docked there, a harbor employee notices the German yacht's crew, which now consists of five men and one woman. He sees them carrying several shopping bags across a large parking lot, which seems odd because most people loading their boats just drive right up to the dock. But the harbor employee doesn't think much of it at the time.

[Holger Stark]

In these first days of September, it's still a good cover, especially when you pretend to be a diver and you just want to do a diving and sailing tour. But at the same time, you also know the clock is tick.

[Zach Goldbaum]

In early fall, the weather starts to turn in the Baltic Sea. The waters become choppy and storms start rolling in, which makes boats like the Andromeda an increasingly uncommon sight. A few days later, on September 12, a Polish sailor sees the yacht docked at the tiny island of Krystenso. He says he was close enough to catch a snippet of the crew's conversation and was surprised to hear the language they were speaking, Ukrainian. 20 knot winds howl across the Baltic Sea and the Andromeda heads for the Swedish harbor of Sondhomm to hunker down and wait it out. While there, a German sailor happens to dock next to the Andromeda. At first he's pleased to encounter a fellow countryman, but he quickly realizes something is off.

[Holger Stark]

He's riding out the storm. He realizes that this is a weird neighbor that he's laying next to. He sees that there are five men and one woman on board, and he sees some of them and they are obviously well trained and they are bored as well. So one of the guys is taking a bicycle and driving up and down, so he wants to engage and ask them something, and he realizes they don't speak German, they don't speak Swedish, they don't speak English.

[Zach Goldbaum]

When the storm moves on, the Andromeda refuels with 193 liters of diesel. The crew pays cash, around €500. Then they sail away. Ten days later, on September 23, the Andromeda returns to its rental facility. An employee inspecting the boat notes dents and scratches on the diving platform. They're significant enough for him to document them on the intake form. The damages would have been deducted from the renter's security deposit, but no customer returns to collect it. Three days later, on September 26th, the pipelines explode. The trail of clues all point back to the Andromeda and to Ukraine. But who were the six people who carried out this brazen act of sabotage? Holger knows that unless that mystery can be solved, there's still not enough evidence to prove that Ukraine was behind the bombings of the Nord Stream pipelines. But soon, German authorities will get a major break in the case. In August 2024, Holger Stark and his team learned that German authorities have issued an arrest warrant for suspect in the Nord Stream sabotage case because charges against him have not been proven. Holger's reporting identifies him only as Volodymyr Z. And no, Z isn't short for Zelensky. This Volodymyr Z is a Ukrainian army veteran, engineer and diving instructor. A lucky break helped the Germans identify him. On the night of September 8, 2022, while the Andromeda was docked in the harbor town of Vik, a nearby traffic camera snapped a photo of a white van going over the speed limit. The van had a Ukrainian license plate, and clearly visible in the photo, sitting in the passenger seat was Volodymyr Z. German authorities are also able to trace the van. It's run by a private chauffeur service that drove the team from Ukraine to through Poland and into Germany. When Holger hears about this, he's convinced Volodymyr Z is one of the bombers. His team keeps digging and manages to track Volodymyr down. He lives in Poland, in a suburb of Warsaw, and to their surprise, he's still walking around a free man. That's because Polish authorities have chosen to ignore Germany's arrest warrant.

[Holger Stark]

Now, you have to have in mind that the hatred against the Russians in Poland is unbelievable. And the Poles feel like they are part of the fight that the Ukrainians are fighting. So arresting a Ukrainian diver who blew up Nord Stream in Poland would cause a political crisis. So the question is, what do you do with such a hot potato that's coming from Germany?

[Zach Goldbaum]

The answer is nothing. You look the other way. Eventually, Volodymyr Z escapes to Ukraine.

[Holger Stark]

The Germans later on learn in the investigation that the Ukrainian diver was brought from Poland from Warsaw in a car with a Ukrainian diplomatic license plate from the Ukrainian embassy back to Kiev.

[Zach Goldbaum]

Around the same time that Holger's team is revealing the story of Volodymyr Z, another piece of the mystery falls into place. Reporting by the Wall Street Journal claims that back in May of 2022, four months before the bombing, there was a boozy gathering of military officials and businessmen in Ukraine. As the drinks flowed, the alcohol and patriotism evolved into a scheme to destroy the Nord Stream pipelines. The secret to fighting Russia, these men decided, was to fight its money. And the cornerstone of Russia's wealth was its energy exports. Disrupting this could tip the war in Ukraine's favor. So they hired and financed a team to do it. And that team chartered the Andromeda. Beyond that, there's still a lot we don't know. Diving instructor Volodymyr Z has vanished. No more footage has turned up. No more witnesses have come out of the woodwork. But what we do know, we owe to reporters like Holger Stark.

[Holger Stark]

For me, the Nord Stream saga is one of the cases why independent journalism is necessary. We fulfilled our role as a watchdog. The story was unknown, and it was, at least for me, not clear if the story would have ever become public because it was politically so sensitive.

[Zach Goldbaum]

And Holger remains confident that one day the truth of what happened at the bottom of the Baltic Sea will come out.

[Holger Stark]

The actual commando who participated in the operation, those names will be known. Some of them are already known. There will be indictments. There will be arrests.

[Zach Goldbaum]

Not long after we talked to Holger, his prediction came true. A Ukrainian man has been arrested in Italy for allegedly coordinating the 2022 Nord Stream Pipeline's attack. In late August, a retired captain from the Ukrainian armed forces was detained in a small town on the Italian coast. He was dropping his son off at university. As of now, he's the first and so far only person associated with the bombing to be arrested. But the truth behind who masterminded the operation, that remains a mystery.

[Holger Stark]

I'm a little bit more skeptical when it comes to the political responsibility because it will be very hard at the end to determine who was up in the food chain and gave the authorization.

[Zach Goldbaum]

According to the Wall Street Journal, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky did know about the sabotage plot and even approved it. They claimed that when the CIA found out about the plot, they pressured him to abort it. And the crew that carried it out had simply gone rogue. So what does that mean for America's role in this whole saga?

[Holger Stark]

The Ukrainians never would be able to do a very sophisticated operation without American training. That doesn't mean necessarily that this was jointly planned, but the logistical support in general by the Americans is extremely important.

[Zach Goldbaum]

Whatever the truth, we may never know if the bombings were a government sanctioned act.

[Holger Stark]

It's unclear if it will be ever solved. Who who authorized the operation and who knew about it?

[Zach Goldbaum]

The future of the Nord Stream pipelines is unclear, but to Holger, the story of their destruction should be a wake up call.

[Holger Stark]

For the Germans, Nord Stream and the Russian invasion was the end of a lie or an illusion.

[Zach Goldbaum]

But when that illusion was shattered, a small sliver of good news did begin to emerge. Like I said earlier, geopolitical conflicts typically benefit the fossil fuel industry, and at first the war in Ukraine looked to be no different. Then, an extraordinary unintended consequence of both the war and the Nord Stream saga began to unfold across Europe. The clean energy transition took on new urgency and demand for renewables accelerated, not because of the climate crisis, but because Europe's security suddenly depended on it. As of last year, an estimated 40% of Europe's energy now comes from renewables, and in Germany, carbon emissions were the lowest they'd been in 70 years. It was a light bulb moment in which Europe finally confronted what had been keeping the light bulb on.

[Holger Stark]

The Nord Stream operation showed how interdependent some things are that you just don't realize on a day to day basis in your normal life. We know now how political energy supply is, what a weapon it can be, what tool it can be, and also how covert operations can harm a free society and can suddenly cut deep into the flesh of the energy system supply of country.

[Zach Goldbaum]

Follow Lawless Planet on the Wondry app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes of Lawless Planet early and ad free right now by joining Wondry plus in the Wondry app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short [e-mail] survey on the next episode of Lawless Planet, when one of the world's most prominent environmental defenders is killed, clues lead back to us trained assassins.

[Joe Biden]

He was kind of playing with his prey, you know, kind of like how a cat plays with a mouse.

[Zach Goldbaum]

For today's episode we relied heavily on reporting from Holger Stark's team at D? Zeit, as well as Bohan Panchevsky's reporting in the Wall Street Journal. Lawless Planet is produced and hosted by me, Zach Goldbaum. This episode was written by Brit Brown. Our senior producer and senior story editor is Derek John. Senior producers for wondery are Peter A.R. cooney and Andy Herman. Our senior managing producer is Nick Ryan. Our managing producer is Sarah Kennedy Corrigan. Our associate producer is Lexi Piri. Music and sound design by Kenny Kuziak. Dialogue edit by George Drabing Hicks. Our music supervisor is Scott Velasquez for Frizz on Sync. Fact checking by Naomi Barr. Our legal counsel is Deb Droze. Executive producers are Marshall Louie, Aaron o', Flaherty, N' Jeri Eaton and Jenny Laur Beckman for Wondery. All right, thanks for listening. See you next week.

[Holger Stark]

Sa.