Germany Indicts Ukrainian Suspect Serhii K Over 2022 Nord Stream Pipeline Blasts

Germany’s top prosecutor has indicted a Ukrainian national over the 2022 explosions that crippled the Nord Stream gas pipelines under the Baltic Sea, moving the case closer to trial.

“Germany charges Ukrainian suspect over Nord Stream blasts, alleges war crime Serhii K”

Anadolu Ajansı

The indictment against the man, identified under German privacy rules only as Serhii K, was served on Wednesday, Berlin law firm Menaker told Reuters, and German public broadcaster ARD and media outlets Süddeutsche Zeitung and Die Zeit said prosecutors accuse him of attacking civilian energy infrastructure.

Anadolu Ajansı

Euronews reported that the Federal Prosecutor’s Office confirmed to AFP the indictment of a man for the explosion and that German media presented him as the leader of the team that carried out the operation.

Euronews also said the Federal Prosecutor reclassified the charges, moving from sabotage directed against the constitutional order to a war crime, and that Kuznietsov denies the charges.

The suspect was arrested in Italy last August and transferred to Germany in November, where a judge activated a German arrest warrant, according to Reuters’ account of the case.

Euronews said the same suspect had been arrested in Italy in the summer of 2025 and extradited to Germany in the following November, and that he had been in pre-trial detention in Hamburg for several months.

Avvenire

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said it was too early to respond to the charges brought in Germany, telling reporters: "We do not yet know all the details of this process."

Zelenskyy added that "For now, it is too early to speak," as he said the relevant authorities would get in touch and that he would probably be able to respond when he received more details.

Prosecutors and the court suspect that Serhii K helped coordinate a team that used a sailing yacht, the Andromeda, to place explosive devices on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines near Denmark’s Bornholm island in September 2022.

“- Published German prosecutors have filed charges against a Ukrainian national over the blowing up of the Nord Stream pipelines under the Baltic Sea in 2022”

BBC

Reuters’ reporting on arrest-warrant documents and a December 2025 detention ruling described the suspected crew as a coordinator, a skipper, four deep-sea divers and an explosives specialist, with Serhii K suspected of acting as the on-board coordinator and team leader.

Euronews said investigators concluded that Kuznietsov would have led the sabotage team and would also have captained the yacht Andromeda, and that prosecutors said he used false identity papers to hire the yacht.

Euronews further reported that the evidence gathered against him is described as overwhelming because he allegedly incriminated himself during telephone calls to relatives and acquaintances while he was in pretrial detention in Italy.