Zelensky must pay for blowing up Nord Stream – AfD co-leader
Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky must compensate Germany for the destruction of the Nord Stream pipeline, which was carried out by Kiev with help of foreign intelligence, the co-leader of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, Alice Weidel, has said.
The government of Chancellor Friedrich Merz has attributed the 2022 explosions in the Baltic Sea that crippled the key energy conduits built to deliver Russian gas to Germany to a small group of Ukrainian saboteurs. Its alleged leader, identified in the media as former military officer Sergey Kuznetsov, was handed over to Berlin by Italy last fall.
In a speech at a campaign event in the city of Heilbronn on Thursday, Weidel slammed the German authorities for continuing to provide military aid to Kiev despite Nord Stream being “simply blown up right under our noses… by a Ukrainian with the help of foreign intelligence services – one could only guess, who it might have been.”
“I can tell you what we will do when we are in government. We will demand compensation. The Ukrainians, Zelensky should pay for blowing up our pipeline,” she insisted, recieving a round of applause. The majority shareholder in Nord Stream is Russian gas giant Gazprom.
“A country that does that is not our friend. One should really stand up and, at least, admit it,” the AfD politician added.
Weidel noted that Germany has given more than €70 billion (around $83 billion) to Ukraine, stressing that “we will demand these billions back, plus repairs to Nord Stream.”
AfD’s popularity continues to grow despite the so-called ‘firewall against the far-right’ policy by mainstream German parties aimed at preventing it from making it into the government. According to a study by INSA earlier this month, it is currently the top polling party in the country with 26% support, 1% ahead of Merz’s CDU/CSU.
Moscow has repeatedly expressed deep skepticism over Berlin’s version of the Nord Stream events, saying that a small group of saboteurs could not have executed such a sophisticated operation in NATO-controlled waters without direct state assistance. Russian President Vladimir Putin and other officials have previously pointed the finger at the US as the possible culprit.
