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.

The Israeli military said Saturday it will aid the evacuation of babies from Gaza’s largest hospital, amid intense fighting around the facility between soldiers and Palestine’s Hamas group.

“The staff of the Al-Shifa hospital has requested that tomorrow, we will help the babies in the paediatric department to get to a safer hospital. We will provide the assistance needed,” military spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a televised briefing.

Earlier Saturday, medics said two premature babies had died at the hospital in Gaza City when the neonatal intensive care unit stopped working due to lack of power.

“There is a real risk to the lives of 37 other premature infants,” Physicians for Human Rights Israel said, citing doctors at Al-Shifa hospital.

A surgeon at the facility, Mohammed Obeid, confirmed the newborn deaths and said an adult patient also died because there was no electricity for his ventilator.

“We want someone to give us the guarantee that they can evacuate the patients, because we have about 600 inpatients,” he said, in an audio recording published by medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

Speaking to AFP by phone, witnesses at the hospital said there was relentless gunfire, air strikes and artillery fire which prevented people moving even within the medical complex.

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.