A Ukrainian special forces commander played a key role in sabotaging the Nord Stream gas pipelines in September last year, reports said Saturday.

Mystery has surrounded who was behind the blasts that damaged the pipelines, cutting off a major route for Russian gas exports to Europe and fuelling already high tensions over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Different theories have emerged pointing the finger at Ukraine, Russia or the United States. All have denied involvement.

A joint investigation by The Washington Post newspaper and German outlet Der Spiegel singles out Roman Chervinsky, a 48-year-old who served in Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces.

He was the “coordinator”, the reports said, citing officials in Ukraine and elsewhere in Europe, as well as other people with knowledge of the operation, who spoke anonymously.

He oversaw logistics and support for a six-person team, which rented a sailing boat using false identities and diving equipment to place explosive charges on the pipelines, said the Post.

The blasts ruptured three of the four pipelines that make up Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2, spewing gas into the Baltic Sea.

Chervinsky did not plan the operation or act alone, and took orders from more senior Ukrainian officials, the Post reported.

He denied any role in the sabotage through his lawyer.

“All speculations about my involvement in the attack on Nord Stream are being spread by Russian propaganda without any basis,” he said in a statement to the Post and Der Spiegel.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly denied his country was behind the sabotage.

“I would never do that,” he told Germany’s Bild newspaper in June, adding that he would “like to see proof”.

But the Nord Stream operation was designed to keep Zelensky in the dark, the Post reported.

The two media outlets said the Ukrainian government did not respond to requests for comment on their investigation.

Chervinsky is currently on trial in Kyiv, accused of having abused his power during an attempt to persuade a Russian pilot to defect.

He says his prosecution is political retribution for having criticised Zelensky, according to the reports.

Two passengers died on Saturday following a sudden jolt after a Delhi-bound train stopped as an overhead electric wire snapped in Jharkhand’s Koderma district, East Central Railway officials said.

The accident occurred near Parsabad between Gomoh and Koderma railway stations at 12.05 pm as the driver of Puri-New Delhi Purushottam Express applied the emergency brake to stop the train after the overhead electric wire fell on it, they said.

“As electric supply stopped all of a sudden, emergency brake was applied to stop the train, and two persons died due to jerk,” Senior Divisional Commerce Manager of Dhanbad Railway Division Ameresh Kumar said.

The train was running at a speed of 130 kmph when the accident occurred.

Train movement on the grand chord line under the Dhanbad Railway Division of ECR resumed after over four hours of halt following the accident in the Koderma-Gomoh section, he said.

The Purushottam Express was brought to Gomoh by a diesel engine from the accident spot and sent to Delhi by an electric engine, he said.

After getting information, Dhanbad Railway Division Manager KK Sinha along with senior officials reached the spot.

A 32-year-old woman was allegedly bludgeoned to death with a pressure cooker by her husband after she refused to give him money to buy liquor in this Uttar Pradesh district, police said on Saturday.

Additional Superintendent of Police Samar Bahadur Singh said Patali, a resident of Kundravi village, is addicted to alcohol. On Friday, he asked his wife Meena Devi for money to buy liquor.

When she refused, Patali started abusing her and, in a fit of rage, hit her several times on the head with a pressure cooker. Meena Devi died on the spot, he said.

The police registered a murder case against Patali — who is on the run — on the basis of his brother-in-law’s complaint on Saturday. Meena Devi’s body has been sent for post-mortem.

Efforts are underway to arrest Patali, Samar Bahadur Singh said.