Danes lift sailing ban on Nord Stream pipeline leak area. WGN Radio 720

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — The Danish Maritime Authority announced Thursday that it will lift a ban on navigation in the region of the Baltic Sea where gas leaked after the explosion that crippled the Nord Stream pipeline last year.

However, the agency said it was maintaining restrictions in areas where “anchoring, fishing and working on the seabed is discouraged within a distance of one nautical mile from the location of the leak due to underwater obstructions.”

In the immediate aftermath of the leak, authorities issued a navigational alert and set a no-go zone to keep ships from sailing nearby.

On September 26th and 27th, a total of four gas leaks were discovered in the Nordstream 1 and 2 gas pipelines from Russia through the Baltic Sea to Germany.

The leak was considered sabotage. Earlier this month, Swedish prosecutors said a state actor was the most likely culprit.

In March 2023, a German media investigation said five men and one woman carried out the attack using a yacht hired by a Ukrainian-owned company in Poland, according to unnamed officials. Quoted. The Ukrainian government has denied any involvement.

Two of them occurred in the Swedish Economic Area, northeast of Bornholm, Denmark, and two in the Danish Economic Area, southeast of Bornholm. All were outside national waters.

Seismic measurements in both Sweden and Denmark showed that the explosion occurred hours before the leak was discovered.

Authorities and investigators in Denmark, Sweden and other countries early suspected the explosion was a deliberate attack and viewed it as an act of sabotage. The pipeline was not operational at the time due to the conflict between Russia and the European Union during the war in Ukraine.

The United States and some of its allies have long criticized the pipeline, warning it poses a risk to Europe’s energy security by increasing continental Europe’s dependence on Russian gas. .