Czech President says if Ukraine involved in Nord Stream explosions, they were legitimate target

The President of the Czech Republic, Petr Pavel, said that if the information of the American media about Ukraine's involvement in the explosions at the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines is true, then these facilities were a legitimate target for Ukraine.

Pavel said this in an interview with the Czech publication Novinky.

The Czech president was asked whether the attack on the gas pipelines was legal.

"When an armed conflict is waged, it is waged not only against military goals, but also against goals of a strategic nature. And pipelines are a strategic object. If the goal of the attack was to stop the supply of gas and oil to Europe and money back to Russia, then — and I'm talking about this conditionally - it would be a legitimate goal," Pavel said.

At the same time, he emphasized that he has information that Ukraine is really behind the explosions at Nord Streams.

He was also asked whether Ukraine should negotiate with Europe about this attack, since its consequences have caused significant problems for Europeans.

Pavel said that at the time of the Nord Stream explosions, Europe already had a number of alternatives for natural gas supplies.

According to him, the Nord Streams were not critically important pipelines on which Europe's energy security would depend.

He agreed that blowing up the gas pipelines had caused some complications, but they were not ones that Europe could not handle.

"Product pipelines have always been and will be the object of attention, as they are able to influence the conflict in one direction or another," the Czech president added.

As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, on August 15, The Wall Street Journal wrote with reference to its own sources that in 2022, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, allegedly personally approved the Nord Stream detonation operation.

The publication claims that Zelenskyy also allegedly tried to cancel it after it became known that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency learned about it.

Recalled that the day before it became known that the German prosecutor's office issued a warrant for the arrest of a Ukrainian, whom the German investigation considers involved in the Nord Stream explosion.