The Swedish coast guard confirmed Thursday that there are four leaks in the damaged Nord Stream pipelines, with two in the Swedish and two in the Danish exclusive economic zones.
Jenny Larsson, an officer with the Swedish coast guard, said: “We have known about these two, which are in the Swedish economic zone, since we had our first unit at the location, so they likely occurred at the same time [as each other],” speaking to the national radio Sveriges Radio.
Three leaks were reported earlier this week, and the Swedish official said a fourth leak was also found at the time.
In the Swedish economic zone, the larger leak is “roughly 900m in diameter and is over Nord Stream 1. The second one is a smaller leak and is over Nord Stream 2. It is roughly 200m in diameter,” Larsson said.
While there is a consensus among EU countries that the leaks are intentional — with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen condemning the “sabotage” and “deliberate disruption of active European energy infrastructure” — the bloc remains cautious to call out a culprit.
Instead, countries like Germany and Denmark are sounding the alarm on the increased need for surveillance on the EU’s critical infrastructure.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4 on Thursday German ambassador to the U.K. Miguel Berger said: “It’s also clear that a non-state actor could not have done that.”
Pressed whether Berlin thinks Russia is behind the leaks, the ambassador said: “I think we can’t rule anything out at the current state.”
“I think now really the conclusion for all of us is what about our critical infrastructure: undersea cables, pipelines, telephone networks … All of that needs additional surveillance,” he added.
“It’s clear we all need to be very aware of our critical infrastructure,” echoed Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod, who spoke to Sky News on Thursday morning.
Another official tiptoeing around Moscow is Fatih Birol, the head of the International Energy Agency. During a conference on renewable energies on Thursday in Paris, he said that even though “it is not yet known who made” the leaks, it was “very obvious” who was behind the sabotage — but didn’t name his suspect.
