Investigative journalist: "Nord Stream" was blown up by a former nude model from Kyiv

Bojan Pancevski

This is reported by BILD.

Bojan Pancevski is a native of Macedonia and a chief European politics correspondent for The Wall Street Journal. He is a journalist with many years of experience and a recipient of prestigious British and German awards, who has long covered topics of Russian aggression, espionage, and European security. In April 2026, his book "The Nord Stream Bombing. The True Story of the Sabotage That Shook Europe" was released, revealing unexpected details of that operation.

According to Pancevski, the attack was planned by an elite Ukrainian unit led by two special forces veterans who viewed Russian gas supplies to Germany as Moscow's main tool of influence. For the extremely risky mission, they needed divers, but instead of experienced agents, they recruited civilians. Among them was even an erotic model.

In a podcast with BILD editor-in-chief Paul Ronzheimer, the journalist said that "the bravest diver in the entire group was a woman." Pancevski does not reveal her real name, using the pseudonym Freya. In her youth, she was part of Kyiv's nightlife.

"Sometimes she worked as a model and posed for provocative photos," the publication quotes the journalist as saying. "In one revealing shot, which became the cover of an erotic magazine, she was wearing a captain's coat. The headline read: 'Why does the Crimean sun awaken sexual feelings?'"

The girl was fond of diving, and after the start of the full-scale war, her life changed dramatically.

"Her ability to dive into the sea to a depth of less than a hundred meters was no longer in demand," Pancevski claims. "However, through diving colleagues, she was then contacted by a special forces unit. It turned out that her skills were still needed by the armed forces. High-ranking officers asked her if she was ready to participate in a mission aimed against sources of funding with which Russia is waging war against her country. It was about a complex and potentially deadly operation. 'Where do I sign?' Freya asked."

The woman played a key role in installing explosives underwater. Despite the bad weather, she repeatedly descended to depth with eighty kilograms of equipment. German investigators, who later tracked her down, were shocked by the discovery.

"The police found an almost endless amount of material about Freya. Then they also stumbled upon her nude photos, some of them very explicit. The officers wondered: 'Could this be the same woman? Or is it a false lead?'" writes the American investigator.

Today, the former model trains other fighters in tactical diving. As Pancevski adds, "she has been commissioned and is officially considered a servicewoman."

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