The German Federal Prosecutor's Office has brought charges against Ukrainian citizen Serhiy Kuznetsov in the case of the sabotage of the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea in the fall of 2022. This is stated in a statement from the German prosecutor's office, reports UNN.
On June 30, 2026, the Federal Prosecutor's Office brought charges before the Senate for State Security of the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court in Hamburg against Ukrainian citizen Serhiy K. The accused is an accomplice to a war crime - an attack on civilian objects, causing an explosion using explosives, destroying structures, and disrupting the operation of public facilities
The prosecutor's office stated that in 2022, the man was an officer of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. After the start of Russia's aggressive war at the end of February 2022, he and other servicemen, on the orders of state bodies of Ukraine, developed a plan to destroy the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines, which run from Russia through the Baltic Sea to the city of Lubmin in Germany. The goal was to permanently stop the supply of gas through these pipelines and prevent Russia from using revenues from natural gas trade to finance its military operations.
To implement this plan, a group was formed under the leadership of the accused, which included several professional divers, a captain, and an explosives expert. On September 4, 2022, Serhiy K. entered Germany via Poland using a forged Ukrainian passport. Shortly thereafter, he and other group members boarded a sailing yacht suitable for open-sea navigation. The yacht had been previously rented using forged documents through intermediaries at a German company in Rostock. On it, the accused and his accomplices transported large quantities of high-power military explosives through international waters all the way to the vicinity of the Danish island of Bornholm. There, the group led by Serhiy K., by September 22, 2022, installed various explosive devices with timers on the gas pipelines running along the seabed. The explosive devices detonated on September 26, 2022, causing serious damage to both pipelines. Before the incident, Nord Stream 1 supplied approximately half of Germany's annual natural gas demand for energy production
The authority recalled that the Ukrainian was detained on August 21, 2025, based on a European arrest warrant by Italian law enforcement officers in the province of Rimini, and in November 2025, he was extradited to Germany.
Update
Serhiy Kuznetsov was detained in Italy in August 2025 under a European arrest warrant from Germany. In November of the same year, he was extradited to Germany. The Ukrainian himself denies involvement in the sabotage of the gas pipelines.
However, according to the German investigation, a group of individuals in September 2022 may have used a rented yacht to transport explosives to the area near the island of Bornholm, where explosions on the gas pipelines subsequently occurred.
The explosions on the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines occurred on September 26, 2022, in the Baltic Sea. They damaged three of the four gas pipeline strings.
Denmark and Sweden previously concluded that it was an act of sabotage, but in 2024 they closed their investigations without naming those responsible. Germany, meanwhile, continued its own investigation.
Ukraine, for its part, denies state involvement in the sabotage of the gas pipelines.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that Ukraine does not yet have official information about the charges against Ukrainian Serhiy Kuznetsov in the case of the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines.