Germany might want to to hold on to their tanks instead of giving them to Ukraine until they find out who is exactly responsible for blowing up their pipeline.
[I agree 100% with this take, a further excerpt from the April 2021 article I posted above.]
Forces and means of the enemy
What military means can be used by a party wishing to harm the pipeline? There is an answer to this question.
The pipeline mainly runs at depths of about 100-150 meters, often closer to a hundred. The use of combat swimmers for sabotage at such a depth is excluded - the need to undergo decompression requires the presence of a vessel with a pressure chamber somewhere nearby, which in itself is a strong unmasking factor. In addition, such an operation takes time. The use of depth charges will unequivocally indicate that the military of some country was working. In addition, the stealth factor again arises - a ship with this weapon will not have time to leave after its use. The attack must be completely invisible.
Under such conditions, the most likely means to attack the pipeline is the so-called mine destroyer - a disposable uninhabited underwater vehicle (UUV), controlled from a surface ship via a fiber-optic cable, having its own television camera and a simple sonar. Such devices are in service with foreign fleets in huge quantities. The device carries an explosive charge on board, the remote detonation of which destroys the mine.
The main feature in the case of Nord Stream is that the device can be secretly launched from a ship located quite far (several kilometers) from the pipeline, and connected to the pipeline remotely. The explosion of the apparatus will be carried out when the ship is not next to it. It will be enough for the crew of the ship to simply throw the control equipment overboard in order to calmly leave the place of sabotage.
Poland has the ability to use such devices. The US, of course, too. In addition, the mercenary industry developed in the United States makes it possible to work not with the hands of their own military personnel or the military personnel of the Polish Armed Forces, but to use mercenaries to train some kind of “cannon fodder” for such an operation. For example, even from Ukraine, whose citizens are well aware of how the launch of Nord Stream 2 will turn out for their country.