Ukraine disguised a $20B sabotage mission as a 'porn film'

This is a review of a new book by investigative journalist Bojan Pancevski that claims to uncover the inside story of the 2022 Nord Stream pipeline sabotage — the explosions that destroyed three of four gas pipelines running from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea. The review summarizes the book's central allegation: that a Ukrainian special-operations team, financed privately (around $300,000, not $20B as the headline suggests), used a rented yacht disguised as a civilian porn-film expedition to plant explosives. The attack is widely considered the largest single act of industrial sabotage in modern history. It matters because Nord Stream was a hugely controversial project — critics said it made Europe dangerously dependent on Russian gas, which Russia then weaponized before the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The sabotage effectively ended that pipeline system, reshuffling global energy markets. Western governments have been unusually tight-lipped about attribution; investigative reports and the book point to Ukraine, though Kyiv denies involvement. Pancevski's book purports to be the most detailed account yet.