A Ukrainian woman who once worked as a model is now at the centre of the Nord Stream sabotage mystery, with a report by The Times linking her to the pipeline explosions.
The woman, identified only by the pseudonym “Freya”, reportedly went from modelling in Kyiv to taking part in a dangerous deep-sea mission that allegedly targeted Russia’s multi-billion-dollar gas pipelines beneath the Baltic Sea.
Born in Kyiv in the 1980s, Freya was described as a restless and energetic child, strikingly beautiful. Raised mainly by her mother, she later worked occasionally as a model and once appeared on the cover of an erotic magazine.
She discovered diving in her early twenties and fell in love with it almost immediately. What began as a hobby soon turned into a passion.
Soon after taking up diving, she quit her job and, just three years after her first descent, became a highly trained technical diver, reaching depths beyond the capability of most recreational divers.
According to The Times, Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the subsequent war in eastern Ukraine transformed her outlook. Following Moscow’s full-scale invasion in 2022, she reportedly shifted to humanitarian work and fundraising for Ukrainian troops, as her deep-sea diving skills were no longer in demand.
It later emerged that her specialist skills were needed after all.
The report claims that, unable to find the expertise they required within the military, Ukrainian operatives began recruiting civilian diving specialists for a secret mission targeting Russia’s $20 billion Nord Stream gas pipelines, a key route for gas exports to Europe. That is when Freya came into the picture, she was allegedly among those selected after a lengthy screening process.
What set Freya apart from others during the screening process was an apparent lack of fear, according to the report.
“Let me go alone, I’ll finish quickly,” Freya reportedly told her teammates during one phase of the operation in September 2022, when rough weather in the Baltic Sea forced the team to reconsider a planned dive nearly 80 metres below the surface. As others hesitated, she volunteered to descend alone.
After months of preparation, the mission finally went ahead. The divers descended to the depths and allegedly placed explosive charges on sections of the Nord Stream pipelines. Weeks later, a series of underwater blasts crippled the network, triggering international investigations.
During one of these probes, German investigators recovered DNA traces, fingerprints and explosive residue from a yacht allegedly used in the operation, The Times reported. Among the evidence was a strand of hair reportedly linked to Freya.
The diver has denied any involvement in the sabotage.
Today, according to the report, she serves as an instructor with a Ukrainian security unit.
Her story has become one of the most remarkable personal narratives to emerge from the still-unsolved Nord Stream mystery.
