Federal prosecutors in Germany have charged a Ukrainian citizen, identified as 50-year-old former Ukrainian army officer Serhiy Kuznetsov, with sabotage of the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines. In court documents he is listed as Serhiy K., but his full identity has been established, according to German media outlet Die Zeit.
Kuznetsov is accused of attacking civilian energy infrastructure, carrying out an explosion using explosives, and destroying structures. Under international criminal law, these actions are classified as a war crime, Die Zeit reported.
According to the investigation, Kuznetsov led a group of saboteurs and commanded the crew aboard the sailing yacht Andromeda, which was used to transport explosives to the site of the pipeline blasts. Investigators found traces of a mixture of the explosives hexogen and octogen on the yacht.
Kuznetsov was arrested in Italy in the summer of 2025 while on vacation and extradited to Germany in November of the same year. He is currently held in pretrial detention in Hamburg, where the trial will take place.
Investigators believe Kuznetsov incriminated himself during phone calls with relatives and acquaintances while in custody in Italy. Evidence of his involvement in the attack was also found on his mobile phone, Die Zeit reported.
Kuznetsov denies any involvement in the sabotage. His lawyer, Nicola Canestrini, said he is confident his client will be fully acquitted in a German court. In November, Kuznetsov complained that he was being treated as “criminal number one” and held in a maximum-security prison alongside suspected members of the Islamic State terrorist group (banned in Russia and many other countries).
A total of seven suspects were named in the case — all Ukrainian citizens: four divers, an explosives specialist, the yacht captain, and a coordinator. One of them died during the war in Ukraine while the investigation was ongoing.
Earlier, a Polish court refused to extradite another Ukrainian citizen, Volodymyr Zhuravlev, who is also suspected of involvement in the sabotage. The Warsaw court explained its decision by stating that if Ukrainians were involved in the attack, it could be classified as a lawful act of self-defense against a “bloody genocidal war.”
Three of the four Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 pipelines were blown up in late September 2022. At the time of the sabotage, no gas was being transported through any of them: Russia had halted Nord Stream shortly before the blasts, and Nord Stream 2 had never been put into operation after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Ukrainian authorities deny any involvement in the sabotage.