On Tuesday, European natural gas prices surged after news of leakage from both strands of the Nord Stream pipeline under the Baltic Sea. By 05:30 ET (09:30 GMT), the front-month Dutch TTF contract, the benchmark for northwest Europe gas prices, was up 8.8 per cent at 189.10 euros a megawatt-hour (MWh), hitting a two-month low of 168.50 EUR/MWh on Monday.

Sweden’s Maritime Authority had warned of more leaks on the Nord Stream pipelines that run from Russia to Germany. The second line had been filled with gas but had not commenced commercial operations before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The pipeline operator Nord Stream said it was investigating. Leaks on undersea gas pipelines are extremely rare, and the discovery of three in close proximity to each other within 24 hours raised suspicions of sabotage, bolstering Russia’s campaign of economic pressure on Europe to drop its support for Ukraine.

If sabotage is confirmed, it would add to a growing body of evidence of Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure to advance its political goals in Ukraine, which are now explicitly the annexation of the south and east of the country.

That will add to worries that it may be willing to damage the nuclear reactors at Zaporizhzhya and other Ukrainian power stations as it pursues ways to undermine a Ukrainian opponent that has made significant advances on the battlefield in recent weeks.