Ex-Advisor to Pentagon Chief Suggests US, UK Might Be Behind Nord Streams Incident

"You have to look at who are the state actors that have the capability to do this. And that means the [UK’s] Royal Navy and the United States’ Navy <…> I think that’s pretty clear," Macgregor said, TASS reported.

He also noted the publication by Poland’s former foreign minister (2007-2014), European parliament member Radoslaw Sikorski, who thanked the United States for damaging the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines on his Twitter page.

Ex-advisor to the Pentagon chief called the notion that Moscow was behind the incident at the pipelines absurd.

"The Russians did not do this," he said, adding that Germany’s involvement in the incident was "extremely unlikely" either.

Four Nord Stream gas pipeline leaks have been uncovered, with the most recent one being pinpointed by Sweden’s coast guard. Earlier, the Nord Stream AG company reported that three threads of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 offshore gas pipelines had suffered unprecedented damage on Monday.

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that Moscow was "deeply concerned about the news" and did not rule out that the pipelines’ operation could have been disrupted by an act of sabotage.

Swedish seismologists later reported that two explosions had been recorded along the Nord Stream pipelines on Monday. The Danish Energy Agency reported that a large amount of gas had spilled into the sea. Aircraft and ships are barred from approaching the site any closer than five nautical miles.