German prosecutors say the Ukrainian state ordered the September 2022 attack that destroyed three of the four Nord Stream pipelines beneath the Baltic Sea, a finding that puts fresh strain on relations between Kyiv and Berlin, Ukraine's biggest military backer. The sabotage released huge volumes of methane into the atmosphere and knocked out a major energy link that had allowed Russia to earn billions from gas sales to Germany and beyond. No group ever claimed responsibility for the blasts.
News broke this week that prosecutors had charged Ukrainian suspect Serhii Kuznetsov, alleged to have led a team of divers in the operation. He was arrested while on holiday in Italy last summer and extradited to Germany in November.
In a statement detailing the charges, including the alleged war crime of targeting civilian infrastructure, prosecutors described Kuznetsov as an officer in the Ukrainian army who, along with other military personnel, acted on the orders of state authorities in Ukraine. Following Russia's February 2022 full-scale invasion, they said, he and other members of the military developed a plan to destroy the pipelines in order to deprive Russia of gas revenues.
The Ukrainian government has consistently denied ordering the pipeline attack. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, asked about the charges this week, told reporters that officials had not yet officially received all the details and that it was too early to comment.
Prosecutors said Kuznetsov led a team consisting of several professional divers, a skipper and an explosives expert, who chartered a yacht in the German port of Rostock using forged identity documents. Using this vessel, the accused and his accomplices allegedly transported large quantities of high-performance military-grade explosives through international waters to an area near the Danish island of Bornholm.
The explosives were allegedly attached to the pipelines together with timed detonators, with the blasts following four days later. Kuznetsov is now reportedly in detention in Hamburg, where he will stand trial.
German media have described the evidence against him as overwhelming, reporting that he incriminated himself during phone calls made while in custody in Italy. Broadcaster ARD said investigators found traces of military explosives on the yacht, and that seven suspects had been identified in the case, one of whom has since died fighting Russia. Last year, a Polish court refused a German extradition request for another Ukrainian suspect linked to the Nord Stream case.
Kuznetsov's Italian defence lawyer, Nicola Canestrini, dismissed what he called the fragile theses of the prosecution, arguing a conviction was out of the question. He also said German authorities had initially sought Kuznetsov's extradition from Italy on lesser charges, including sabotage, only adding the more serious war crime allegation later.
With the war crime charge, Canestrini said, prosecutors were for the first time acknowledging that the alleged conduct took place in the context of an armed conflict, that is, within the framework of a war.
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