It was before your time, but you may want to read up on the destroyers Maddox and Turner Joy in 1964.
That was and is what is known as a pretext.
You see, the US instigated the little confrontation in the Gulf of Tonkin as a provocation, hoping for a response. Of course, there was no damage to either the Maddox or the Turner joy, aside from one half-inch bullet hole that harmed no one and did no damage (almost as if it had been done intentionally, by ourselves). But, it was the causus belli that LBJ wanted. And, voila! Next thing you know, we are attacking targets in North Vietnam. And, to quote a line from an old TV show, “And away we go!”
If Putin wanted to escalate this war, but be able to blame the escalation on the West, what better way than to sabotage your own property (the pipelines are owned by Russian company Gazprom, of which the Russian government is the majority and controlling shareholder), which is far away from Russia itself; and, really, doesn’t cause all that much damage at all to Russia itself; and then screech: “The West crossed the red line! Cry havoc! And release the dogs of war!”