Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov has denied his country’s involvement in sabotaging the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines.

“This is not our activity,’’ Mr Reznikov said at a meeting of EU defence ministers on Wednesday in Stockholm.

He expressed confidence in ongoing international probes on the matter.

An investigation from German public broadcasters ARD and SWR and Die Zeit newspaper linked Ukraine to the September 2022 explosions at the two gas pipelines running between Russia and Germany.

According to Die Zeit, authorities in Germany, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands and the U.S. were involved in the investigations.

Media reports, including the New York Times, said investigators had found no evidence of who ordered the destruction.

However, citing intelligence leads, they said a pro-Ukrainian group could be responsible.

The Times reported that the U.S. has “no evidence’’ linking the attack to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky or his top aides.

Mr Reznikov said he was not concerned the reports could dent Western support for Ukraine.

German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said it was important to distinguish if the Ukrainian group was acting “without the knowledge of the government’’ in Ukraine.

Mr Pistorius also cautioned against jumping to conclusions and warned the sabotage may have been a false flag operation.

In a so-called false flag operation, perpetrators deliberately laid false tracks pointing to other actors as misdirection.

The mysterious explosions at the Baltic Sea pipelines connecting Russia to Germany occurred in September 2022. Neither pipeline was delivering gas at the time because of the energy stand-off between the European Union and Russia.

Moscow had denied being behind the incident and pointed at the U.S. as the most to benefit from an attack on the energy infrastructure.

(dpa/NAN)