Pro-Ukraine group sabotaged pipelines, intelligence suggests - NYT

REUTERS BY OLENA HARMASH, SOURCE NYT, EDITING BY GERMÁN & CO

KYIV, March 8 (Reuters) - Intelligence reviewed by U.S. officials indicates that a pro-Ukrainian group was behind last year's attacks on the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines, but there was no evidence of the Kyiv government's involvement, the New York Times reported.

The undersea explosions, seven months into the Russia-Ukraine conflict, on the pipelines between Russia and Germany occurred in the exclusive economic zones of Sweden and Denmark in the Baltic Sea. Both countries have concluded the blasts were deliberate, but have not said who might be responsible.

Tuesday's New York Times report cited U.S. officials as saying there was no evidence that President Volodymyr Zelenskiy or his top aides were involved or that the perpetrators were acting at the behest of any Ukrainian government officials.

"Without a doubt, Ukraine is absolutely not involved in the excesses on the pipelines," Mykhailo Podolyak, a political adviser to Zelenskiy, said in a statement.

"It does not make the slightest bit of sense."

The United States and NATO have called the Sept. 26 attacks "an act of sabotage", while Russia has blamed the West and called for an independent probe. Neither has provided evidence.

Reuters could not independently verify the report.

On the battlefront, Russian forces continued to pound Bakhmut and nearby regions in a push to secure their first major victory in more than half a year.

Zelenskiy, who has vowed to defend the besieged eastern Ukrainian city, repeated a familiar message on Tuesday that reclaiming occupied territory was his major goal.

"We are doing everything to liberate our land as quickly as possible, to put a historic end as quickly as possible to attempts to deny freedom to our country and our people," Zelenskiy said in a video address that he has delivered nightly since Russia invaded on Feb. 24 last year.

RUSSIA'S 'LAST SHOT'

Ukrainian forces repelled attacks on Bakhmut and Ivanivske, on the town's western approaches, as well as on Klishchiivka, on its southern approaches, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said in a statement on Tuesday.

There were 37 attacks alone on the road leading to Sloviansk, a major town in Donetsk region to the west of Bakhmut, Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said on YouTube.

"The Russian command has taken a decision ... to bring in as much artillery as possible. But the number of artillery attacks has declined as there has been a gradual decline in the amount of ammunition available," Zhdanov added.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Russia's Wagner mercenary group which has been spearheading the battle for Bakhmut, has accused Russia's defence ministry of deliberately starving his men of ammunition, an accusation the ministry rejects.

In a post on Telegram, Prigozhin made pointed reference to the defence minister Sergei Shoigu, saying he "had not seen him in Bakhmut" and that Wagner forces were coming up against well-equipped Ukrainian forces.

While Russia has made gains in recent weeks around Bakhmut, its winter offensive has otherwise been a failure, yielding no significant gains in major assaults further north and south.

Shoigu said capturing Bakhmut would allow Moscow's forces to mount further offensive operations deeper inside Ukraine, while Kyiv has vowed to continue defending the city.

"The main task of our troops in Bakhmut is to grind the enemy's fighting capability, to bleed their combat potential," Serhiy Cherevatyi, a spokesperson for Ukraine's eastern military command, told the Ukrainian public television.

Russian losses in Bakhmut are between five and eight times greater than Ukraine's, military expert Pavlo Narozhniy told Ukrainian NV Radio. "It is critical to inflict heavy losses."

He expects a Ukrainian counter-offensive to get underway in earnest over April-May when the weather is better and more military aid arrives, including heavy battle tanks.

Elsewhere, Russian forces attacked the Ukrainian-held town of Nikopol opposite the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, the General Staff statement said.

Reuters was unable to verify battlefield accounts.

DIPLOMACY

U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron and discussed Russia's invasion and challenges posed by China, the White House said.

Moscow accuse the United States and its allies of using Ukraine to wage war against it. Rejecting that claim, Kyiv and the West say that Ukraine is fighting against an attempted land grab by Russia.

China has proposed a peace plan that Russia is paying close attention to, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Responding to Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang's remark that the Ukraine crisis seemed to be driven by an "invisible hand", Peskov said "this is not an invisible hand, this is the hand of the United States of America."

Separately, President Vladimir Putin issued special thanks to female military personnel, saying their courage amazes even the "most hardened fighters", in a message to mark International Women's Day on March 8, a public holiday in the country.