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German underwater archaeologist refutes version of Ukrainians blowing up Nord Streams
Thomas has led professional diving teams on various underwater expeditions for many years. His team is currently exploring a shipwreck on the bottom of Lake Arend in Saxony-Anhalt using special 30-metre pontoons that can dive to depths of up to 34 metres, as well as two support vessels. The pontoon is secured with four anchors. Otherwise, even in calm lake waters, it would drift relative to the debris on the bottom.
As Thomas points out, the Andromeda has only one anchor weighing 25 tons with 75 meters of chain, which would not be able to secure the yacht over the gas pipeline in rough seas. “A 25-ton anchor can support a 17-ton yacht,” says the underwater archaeologist.
The minimum set of equipment required for such work weighs approximately 4 tons. 26 cylinders of oxygen and argon, two large cylinders of helium, a compressor, a wetsuit, about 1.5 tons of explosives and an underwater scooter to deliver them to the site. It would be impossible to fit all this on the 15-meter Andromeda, but if it were possible, it would certainly attract attention, since trucks and cranes would be needed to load the equipment.
Moreover, the weather in September 2022, when the Ukrainians on the Andromeda allegedly mined the gas pipeline, was not very good. As Thomas points out, the sea was very stormy, and the saboteurs actually had only one small "window" of relatively good weather. They had to make at least eight dives over two or three days in constant wind and waves. Three different points in the ocean, two for each charge.
The first dive is necessary for reconnaissance, and the second dive is directly necessary for the extraction of minerals, unless unforeseen circumstances arise. At the same time, descending to a depth of 70-90 meters, where the charges were planted, the divers had to literally hang on breathing cylinders, and it would be very difficult to cope with hundreds of them even with the help of scooters. kg of explosives. And, according to Thomas, such loads can only be removed from the Andromeda with the help of a crane, which, of course, was not and could not be on the yacht.
Underwater archaeologists believe that the pipeline could have been mined without the involvement of divers from a large vessel that, using GPS, positioned itself precisely above the pipeline and dropped a powerful charge (possibly a military mine) onto the seabed. According to Thomas, the Andromeda could theoretically have been involved in mining operations only at one point, south of Bronnholm Island, where archaeologists believe the force of the explosion was small.