Ukraine Sabotage Trial Opens in Germany as Defendant Denies Nord Stream Blast Charges

A 50-year-old Ukrainian man went on trial in Hamburg on Wednesday accused of playing a leading role in the sabotage of Russia's Nord Stream gas pipelines, a case that German prosecutors have classified as a war crime and that has placed intense strain on Berlin's relationship with Kyiv.

Serhii Kuznetsov, who was extradited to Germany from Italy late last year, is the first suspect to face trial over the explosions that tore through the Baltic Sea pipelines in September 2022. He denies the charges, and his defence team has asked the court to dismiss the case entirely.

The defendant entered the courtroom appearing relaxed, at times smiling during preliminary exchanges in which he confirmed personal details such as his name and place of birth. A packed public gallery observed the proceedings.

Kuznetsov had previously been identified by German prosecutors only as Serhii K, with photographs showing his face blurred. A court spokeswoman said he has now waived his right to anonymity, allowing him to be named publicly for the first time.

Wearing headphones, he listened intently to a Ukrainian translation as prosecutors read out the charges against him, alleging he ordered divers and an explosives expert to attack civilian infrastructure. A second suspect is also wanted in connection with the case but is fighting extradition from Croatia.

The defence has argued that the evidence assembled over four years amounts to nothing more than circumstantial material. Italian defence lawyer Nicola Canestrini told the BBC outside the courtroom that prosecutors had conducted a thorough investigation but failed to produce a single witness, forensic evidence, DNA or fingerprints.

Canestrini and his colleagues further argued that Kuznetsov, as a soldier, is bound by secrecy obligations, which they say prevents him from receiving a fair trial because he cannot adequately defend himself. They posed a hypothetical scenario in which the defendant might have an alibi — such as being on another secret operation — but would be unable to disclose it or identify witnesses who could corroborate it.

The defence also contended that his extradition from Italy was legally flawed because the war crime allegation was not mentioned at the time of the handover. German prosecutors, however, maintain that the case falls under the country's code of crimes against international law, characterising the pipeline attack as an act of military aggression against civilian objects.

The explosions on 26 September 2022 destroyed three of the four gas pipelines running beneath the Baltic Sea near the Danish island of Bornholm. In the months that followed, Western governments looked with suspicion toward Moscow, though they stopped short of directly assigning blame.

Context surrounding the attack was already tense. Russia had halted gas flows through Nord Stream 1 weeks earlier, and Nord Stream 2 had never become operational. Berlin had frozen the multi-billion-dollar project shortly before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and there had been reports of suspicious Russian naval movements in the area before the blasts.

As investigators from Sweden, Denmark and Germany sought to establish responsibility, Russian President Vladimir Putin pointed the finger at the United States and its British allies, referring to them as "the Anglo-Saxons" — an accusation both governments rejected.

After Denmark and Sweden closed their respective inquiries, German prosecutors concentrated their attention on a group of deep-sea divers who had rented a yacht named the Andromeda from the northern German port of Rostock. Prosecutors later stated that traces of subsea explosives were detected in samples recovered from the vessel.

The investigation proceeded despite the diplomatic sensitivity of pursuing a case against a citizen of Ukraine, one of Germany's closest allies since Russia's February 2022 invasion. In January 2025, Germany's federal court of justice ruled that the matter fell within German territorial jurisdiction, reasoning that prosecutors had a responsibility to act because the attack undermined the country's internal security.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has consistently stated that Ukraine had nothing to do with the pipeline explosions. Nonetheless, the German indictment alleges that the saboteurs conceived and executed the plot while acting on orders from Ukrainian state agencies — a claim Kyiv has not confirmed.

The proceedings have exposed divergent perspectives in both Kyiv and Berlin. Oleksandr Merezhko, who chairs the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Ukrainian parliament, noted that the blasts occurred during a period of war with Russia and described Nord Stream 2 as nothing more than a tool Russia used to prepare for its invasion.

He told the BBC that Ukrainian officials had no confirmation of the German account, underscoring the gap between the prosecution's narrative and Kyiv's position. The trial is expected to examine in detail the evidence gathered over four years, including the forensic samples taken from the rented yacht and the investigative work conducted by German authorities after their Danish and Swedish counterparts ended their own probes.

For Germany, the case represents a difficult balancing act: pursuing accountability for an act of sabotage on critical infrastructure while managing relations with a wartime ally. The outcome could carry significant implications for how European governments handle allegations involving states they support, and for the legal boundaries of prosecuting wartime acts under international criminal law.