Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has cancelled a visit to Germany planned for later this week following new details about Warsaw's involvement in the events surrounding the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines.
Euractiv reports this, citing sources.
Why Tusk Canceled Visit to Scholz
According to Euractiv , the Polish prime minister was heading to Potsdam to receive the M100 Media Award, but cancelled the trip at the last minute, citing internal commitments.
Now, instead of Tusk, the head of the Ministry of Justice and the Prosecutor General of Poland, Adam Bodnar, will go.
German Prime Minister Olaf Scholz, who was supposed to give a speech in honor of the Polish Prime Minister, will also not attend the ceremony due to scheduling conflicts. He will be replaced by former German President Joachim Gauck.
According to Euractiv, the real reason for the cancellation of the visit of the head of the Polish government was the sharp deterioration in relations between the countries.
According to sources familiar with the matter, the deterioration of the situation is mainly related to the Nord Stream gas pipelines, the publication writes.
Euractiv recalls that Warsaw rejected Berlin's request to arrest a Ukrainian living in Poland suspected of organizing sabotage on the Nord Streams, and Tusk recently reproached Germany, calling on "all initiators and patrons" of the gas pipelines to apologize and keep quiet.
Earlier, a number of German media outlets, citing their own investigation, reported that the suspect in the sabotage on Nord Stream left Poland for Ukraine in a car belonging to the Ukrainian embassy.
The American publication The Wall Street Journal reported that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky approved the plan to sabotage the Nord Stream pipeline, but tried to reverse his decision after the US Central Intelligence Agency learned about it.
The explosions at Nord Stream occurred on September 26, 2022. Denmark, Sweden and Germany have not ruled out deliberate sabotage.
Nord Stream AG, the operator of the Nord Stream pipeline, said the damage was unprecedented and that it was impossible to estimate the repair time.
The Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation initiated a case on an act of international terrorism.
In February last year, American investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, citing a source, stated that explosive devices under gas pipelines were planted under the cover of the Baltops exercises in June 2022 by US Navy divers with the support of Norwegian specialists.
According to Hersh, the decision to carry out the operation was made by US President Joseph Biden following nine months of discussions.
