Ukrainian accused of Nord Stream pipeline sabotage goes on trial in Germany

A Ukrainian man accused of helping to mastermind the attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines four years ago went on trial for war crimes in Germany on Wednesday, with his defence calling for the case to be dismissed.

The closely watched trial – the first involving one of the alleged perpetrators of the 2022 attacks in the Baltic Sea – opened at the Higher Regional Court in the northern city of Hamburg with a significant international media presence.

The defendant, 50-year-old Serhiy Kuznetsov, is accused of causing a blast with explosives, destroying infrastructure and disrupting public services.

As he was serving as an officer in the Ukrainian military and allegedly acted with the knowledge of Ukrainian authorities, the charges include war crimes.

The defence sought to have the case thrown out, denying the war crimes allegation and arguing there was no evidence to support the charge that Kuznetsov played a leading role in the attack.

According to the indictment read out in court, Kuznetsov was one of the military personnel who devised a plan on behalf of Ukrainian authorities to destroy the pipelines, which were built to transport Russian natural gas to Germany.

The 50-year-old is accused of leading a team, including several professional divers, a skipper and an explosives expert, which allegedly transported large quantities of high-performance military explosives to the waters off the Danish island of Bornholm on a sailing yacht chartered in the northern German city of Rostock.

Near Bornholm, the team allegedly attached explosive devices with time fuses to the gas pipelines on the seabed, which detonated on September 26, 2022, severely damaging both Nord Stream 1 and 2.

Four leaks were later found in three of the four pipelines.

In the months following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Moscow had already repeatedly reduced or suspended deliveries through Nord Stream 1.

Kuznetsov was arrested at the end of August 2025 while on holiday with his family on Italy’s Adriatic coast and was extradited to Germany three months later, where he was placed in pre-trial detention.

The defence further charged that the extradition from Italy was without any legal basis as the Italian courts ruled on the matter without being aware of the war crime allegation.

Around 20 Ukrainians demonstrated outside the courthouse ahead of the trial on Wednesday, calling for the defendant not to be convicted of war crimes.

“Ukraine has the right to defend itself in order to survive,” said a spokesman for the protesters.