The World Today
Russia's Permanent Representative to the UN, Dmitry Poliansky, on Friday called for an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council on the Nord Stream gas pipeline explosion, following the arrest in Italy of a Ukrainian citizen suspected of sabotaging its infrastructure just months after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
"In connection with new information regarding the arrest of a suspect in the orchestration of the terrorist attacks against Nord Stream in September 2022, Russia has requested an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council," the Russian representative announced in a brief statement released via Telegram, which he accompanied with a link to the news of the arrest.
With this meeting, the Russian delegation seeks—among other objectives—to "draw attention to the delays in the German investigation and its lack of transparency before the Security Council," as Polianski himself clarified.
"The Panamanian presidency of the SC (Security Council) has scheduled it for 4:00 p.m. New York time (11:00 p.m. Moscow time) on August 26," the statement concludes.
This request comes after the German Prosecutor's Office announced on Thursday the arrest of a Ukrainian citizen suspected of coordinating the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipeline in September 2022, opening a new chapter in a Russian invasion that had barely begun.
This Ukrainian was arrested this Thursday by police in Rimini, eastern Italy, and his extradition to Germany, the country where these gas pipelines from Russia flow through the Baltic Sea, was scheduled to end.
On September 26, 2022, three of the four lines of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines experienced an explosion while passing through the Baltic Sea, near the Danish island of Bornholm and off the coast of Sweden.
Nord Stream 1 had previously been used to supply Russian gas to Germany, while Nord Stream 2 was never put into operation following the full invasion of Ukraine.
