Ukraine Officer Charged in Germany Over Nord Stream Pipeline Blasts

A court in Germany has charged a former Ukrainian army officer with taking part in a war crime over the 2022 Nord Stream gas pipeline blasts, accusing him of acting on behalf of Ukrainian state authorities.

Prosecutors filed charges against a man, identified as Serhii K under German privacy rules, at a regional court in the German city of Hamburg on Thursday.

They accused the suspect of being part of a group which attacked ⁠civilian objects, causing an explosion, destroying infrastructure and disrupting public services.

Serhii K has denied involvement in the attack.

Authorities in Kyiv said that they did not have enough information about the case to respond in detail to German prosecutors’ allegations.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had said on Wednesday that he had yet to receive full details of the indictment.

“The relevant authorities of our countries will get in touch, and ‌when we receive more details, we will probably be able to respond. For now, it is too early to speak,” he said.

‘Sabotage’

The Nord Stream blasts took place in September 2022, seven months after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The explosions damaged the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, a crucial route for Russian gas exports to Europe. Nord Stream 2 branch was also damaged before it entered service.

At the time of the alleged attack, Moscow had halted gas deliveries to Europe through Nord Stream 1, blaming Western sanctions and technical issues. Europe accused Russia of weaponising energy supplies.

Russia and some Western countries described the attacks as sabotage.

According to the German indictment, Serhii K was an officer in the Ukrainian army in 2022 and led a team of divers, a ship captain and an explosives expert into Germany on a forged Ukrainian passport in September 2022 and rented a boat using fake documents.

Prosecutors accused the defendant and his team of transporting military-grade explosives through international waters to an area close to the Danish island of Bornholm ⁠before attaching them to the pipelines on the Baltic Sea floor and setting time fuses.

The aim, prosecutors said, was to permanently halt gas deliveries via the pipelines and prevent Russia from using revenue from the natural gas trade to finance its war efforts.

Serhii K was arrested in Italy in August and transferred to Germany in November.

He faces a minimum prison sentence of three years on the charge of directing an attack against civilian objects under German law.

German courts say the case falls under German jurisdiction because the damaged pipelines end at Lubmin in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and affected German energy security.