The Swedish Coast Guard announced on Thursday morning that a fourth leak in the Nord Stream pipelines had been discovered. The first three were found on Monday, and international observers suspect sabotage.

Meanwhile, the US broadcaster “CNN” reports, citing European secret services, that the Russian Navy has been sighted near the leaks. It is not yet clear whether the presence of the ships had anything to do with the alleged explosions.

On Wednesday, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office said it had launched international terrorism proceedings over the alleged sabotage of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines. “No later than September 26, 2022, intentional actions to damage the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines laid on the Baltic Sea floor were committed in the area of ​​the island of Bornholm,” the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office said on Wednesday on its Telegram channel. Moscow justified the step by saying that the damage to the pipelines had “inflicted considerable economic damage on Russia”.

According to a report by the British “ Times ”, there were increasing indications that the pipeline leaks were planned detonations by the Russian side. The newspaper quotes a defense source as saying the pipeline was sabotaged “probably deliberately and deliberately” using an explosive device dropped into the sea weeks before the detonation.

A Russian underwater drone with an explosive charge is said to have been thrown into the sea weeks before the explosion. According to the report, this is the most likely scenario. Even German security authorities would assume that explosive devices were integrated into the pipelines during construction, reports the “Bild” newspaper. These were described as “switch-off devices for emergencies”. The explosives used are “probably of a military nature” and not available on the open market, estimates frigate captain Göran Swistek to “zdf.heute”.