Strategic objects, such as the Nord Stream gas pipelines, can be expected to become a target during an armed conflict, while there is no evidence of Ukraine’s involvement in this attack, said President of the Czech Republic Petr Pavel in an interview with Novinky on August 21.
“I have no compromising clear information that Ukraine was really behind the attack. When an armed conflict continues, it is conducted not only against military objectives, but also against objectives of a strategic nature. And pipelines are a strategic goal. If the attack was aimed at stopping gas and oil supplies to Europe and returning money to Russia, then – and I specifically say “conditionally” – this would be a legitimate goal. But I don’t have such information,” he said.
The President also noted that “at that time we already had a number of alternatives, therefore the Nord Stream was not a critically important product pipeline on which Europe’s energy security would depend.”
“This, of course, caused certain difficulties, but not such that we could not cope with. Product pipelines have always been and will be a target, as they can potentially affect the conflict in one direction or another,” Pavlo added.
