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Germany puts Ukrainian on trial accused of blowing up Nord Stream pipelines
Confirmed
In Short: A Ukrainian former military officer is standing trial in Germany, accused of organizing the secret operation that blew up the Nord Stream gas pipelines in 2022, according to Al Jazeera (Qatar) and Arabnews (Saudi Arabia).
A Ukrainian former military officer is standing trial in Germany, accused of organizing the secret operation that blew up the Nord Stream gas pipelines in 2022, according to Al Jazeera (Qatar) and Arabnews (Saudi Arabia). The trial, which opened on Wednesday at the Hamburg Higher Regional Court, is expected to run into February next year, with Al Jazeera (Qatar) and BBC (United Kingdom) reporting that the suspect denies any involvement.
The defendant, identified only as Serhii K. under German privacy rules, is the sole person on trial, according to Al Jazeera (Qatar) and NewsCord. He is accused of leading a group of Ukrainian agents, including divers and an explosives expert, in one of the biggest infrastructure sabotage operations of modern times, as reported by Al Jazeera (Qatar), Arabnews (Saudi Arabia), Marine Technology News, Offshore Engineer Magazine, and The Moscow Times.
Swedish seismologists detected several blasts on September 26, 2022, some 17 hours apart, and three of the four pipelines ruptured, sending huge plumes of methane into the atmosphere, according to NewsCord, Al Jazeera (Qatar), Arabnews (Saudi Arabia), Marine Technology News, and Offshore Engineer Magazine.
The Nord Stream system, lying at a depth of 80 to 110 meters under the Baltic Sea, was formerly at the core of economic ties between Russia and Germany, built by Russian gas concern Gazprom to supply up to 110 billion cubic meters of gas to Germany, as reported by Arabnews (Saudi Arabia), Marine Technology News, Offshore Engineer Magazine, and The Moscow Times.
The trial is expected to run into February 2027, according to The Times of Israel (Israel), and could test Germany’s political stance on Ukraine, as noted by Al Jazeera (Qatar). A senior Ukrainian official told AFP that Kyiv has “no expectations from the trial,” as reported by The Times of Israel (Israel).
The Nord Stream pipeline explosion sealed the end of Germany's longstanding dependence on Russian natural gas, although Moscow had already cut supplies over Berlin's support for European sanctions following Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, as reported by Offshore Engineer Magazine and The Moscow Times.
Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), leading in opinion polls for over a year, has called for an end to military aid for Ukraine and a restoration of energy ties with Moscow, according to Marine Technology News, Offshore Engineer Magazine, and The Moscow Times.
The suspect was arrested in Italy's Rimini province on August 21, 2025, and transferred to Germany on November 27, 2025, according to TRT World, which cited German media outlets ARD, Sueddeutsche Zeitung, and Zeit.
Stefan Meister, of the German Council on Foreign Relations, told RFE/RL that the crucial question was “How much came from the top of the Ukrainian political system or how much was prepared by some insiders in the intelligence service?” as reported by NewsCord.
Russia said on Monday it expected a “just verdict” naming the perpetrators and those who ordered the operation, as reported by Al Jazeera (Qatar), Arabnews (Saudi Arabia), Marine Technology News, Offshore Engineer Magazine, and The Moscow Times.
Photos posted by Ukrainian officials showed windows blown out of a white minibus, with a trail of blood streaming down the side of the vehicle, according to Al Jazeera (Qatar).
The trial's duration and potential political implications for Germany are new details provided by Al Jazeera (Qatar) and The Times of Israel (Israel). The arrest and transfer of the suspect from Italy to Germany are new details provided by TRT World.
What's confirmed
- A Ukrainian former military officer is standing trial in Germany, accused of organising the secret operation that blew up the Nord Stream gas pipelines in 2022 and cut Western Europe off from its biggest source of Russian natural gas.
- It is the first public hearing of the evidence in a years-long investigation.
- They say the group used a sailboat hired in the northern city of Rostock to reach an area near the Danish island of Bornholm, where they attached military-grade explosives with timers to the pipelines on the seabed.
- They allege he travelled to Germany through Poland on a forged Ukrainian passport about three weeks before the attack.
- The trial opened on Wednesday at the Hamburg Higher Regional Court and is expected to run into February next year.
- Serhii K. has denied any involvement in the blasts that ruptured the 1,200-km (750-mile)-long Baltic Sea pipeline.
- The Nord Stream system, lying at a depth of 80 to 110 meters under the Baltic and built by Russian gas concern Gazprom to supply up to 110 billion cubic meters of gas to Germany, was formerly at the core of economic ties between the two countries.
- He is the only person on trial, but Croatian authorities have arrested another man, identified as Vladimir Z., who prosecutors believe was one of the divers in the team.
- Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), leading in opinion polls for more than a year, has called for an end to military aid for Ukraine and a restoration of energy ties with Moscow.
- Swedish seismologists detected several blasts on September 26, 2022, some 17 hours apart, and three of the four concrete-coated steel pipelines ruptured, sending huge plumes of methane into the atmosphere.
- Russia said on Monday it expected a “just verdict” naming the perpetrators and those who ordered the operation.
- The defendant, a 50-year-old identified under German privacy rules only as Serhii K., is accused of leading a group of Ukrainian agents – including divers and an explosives expert – in one of the biggest infrastructure sabotage operations of modern times.
What's still developing
- In the months after explosives destroyed three of the four gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea off the island of Bornholm on 26 September 2022, Western suspicion looked towards Moscow without directly apportioning blame.
- Energy data company TGS has signed a framework agreement with newly established Galdor Exploration to use artificial intelligence… TGS and SLB have announced the second phase of their Pelotas Sul multi-client 3D seismic survey offshore southern Brazil… TenneT Germany has joined DEME and Subsea Cable Assets (SCA) as a development sponsor of Frequensea's subsea cable decommissioning tool… Nortek unveiled the Marin buoy and ADCP system at Oceans 2026 in Monterey.
- His trial is currently scheduled to run until February 2027.
- Kyiv says its strikes are aimed at revenue streams for Moscow's war machine, and that the latest attacks could force Russia to divert resources to Yandex.
- Per the BBC, the military strikes were meant to target "places that provide revenue streams for Moscow's war machine." Speaking at the Warsaw Security Forum on Monday, Zelenskyy said "everyone noticed" a drop in Russian bot activity on social media after the strikes.
- "They tried to make not a big story out of it, not to give it too much attention, to give it to the institutions, to the judiciary that they will deal with it. This is not a political case. So they tried to depoliticise it," he explained.
- " Russia is the only war criminal that belongs in the dock," said one of the dozens of protesters.
- It also rejects charges that it has more recently targeted Western infrastructure with so-called "hybrid" sabotage and drone attacks.
- Zelensky said Kyiv was responding to similar Russian attacks on Ukrainian data centres in a "mirror-like fashion".
- Meanwhile, at least 250 civilians were killed and 1,596 others injured in Ukrainian attacks inside Russia during the first six months of this year, according to the UN mission, quoting credible Russian open-source reporting – a 121 percent increase in civilian casualties in the country compared with the previous year.