Senior Ukrainian military officers hatched the daring plan to blow up Russia's Nord Stream gas pipelines during 'a night of heavy boozing', an investigation has claimed. 

The multi-billion dollar Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines transporting gas under the Baltic Sea were ruptured by a series of blasts in September 2022, seven months after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine.

The blasts wrecked three out of four pipelines, which had become a controversial symbol of German reliance on Russian gas in the wake of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, and triggered wild speculation over the possible culprit - not to mention a continental energy crisis. 

But now, a Ukrainian military officer allegedly involved in the operation told the Wall Street Journal the sabotage - pulled off with a single yacht, a six-person crew, rudimentary diving equipment and a set of light explosives - was dreamt up by a few Ukrainian military men amid an alcohol-fuelled bash.

'I always laugh when I read media speculation about some huge operation involving secret services, submarines, drones and satellites,' the officer said. 

'The whole thing was born out of a night of heavy boozing and the iron determination of a handful of people who had the guts to risk their lives for their country.' 

One officer who participated and three other sources familiar with the plan told WSJ it was initially approved by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, but said that former armed forces commander-in-chief Valery Zaluzhny instructed the team to forge on with the attack when Zelensky got cold feet. 

The Ukrainian president's office today rejected the WSJ's investigation as 'absolute nonsense'.