The Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh has accused the United States of sabotaging the Nord Stream pipelines, which were built to carry natural gas from Russia to Europe. The pipelines were severely damaged last September in a series of underwater explosions in the Baltic Sea. In a self-published piece on his new Substack page, Hersh alleges the sabotage was carried out by the U.S. Navy, which he says planted remotely triggered explosives during NATO exercises last summer with the help of Norway’s military and secret service. Hersh alleges President Joe Biden authorized the sabotage. Hersh cited a single unnamed source “with direct knowledge of the operational planning.” A White House spokesperson described the report as “complete fiction,” while the CIA called it “completely and utterly false.” The Norwegian Foreign Ministry also denied the claims.

Hersh’s report comes two weeks after Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland made these remarks during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the war in Ukraine.

Victoria Nuland: “I am, and I think the administration is, very gratified to know that Nord Stream 2 is now, as you like to say, a hunk of metal at the bottom of the sea.”

In December, The New York Times reported Russia had begun expensive repairs on the pipelines — a move which has raised questions about Western claims that Russia had bombed its own pipelines. The sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines released up to 150,000 tons of methane gas into the atmosphere, making it one of the largest methane leaks ever recorded from a single source.