[German Court Probes Russian Military Role in Nord Stream Sabotage Trial]
Updated 17 min 41 sec ago
October 15, 2026 03:51
Nord Stream Sabotage Trial Begins
HAMBURG: A lawyer for a Ukrainian accused of blowing up the Nord Stream pipelines supplying Russian gas to western Europe said Wednesday Moscow used the network to exert political and economic pressure, as the former military officer’s trial opened in Germany.
Sergey Kuznietsov is the first individual ever put on record for trial concerning the 2022 sabotage. At fifty years old, he faces allegations of leading a Ukrainian team of divers and an explosives specialist to detonate Nord Stream, seven months after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
—Prosecutor Stefan Schmidt— told the Hamburg court that Kuznietsov, acting on authority for the Ukrainian state, committed a war crime by invoking “military means” against civilian infrastructure. He also bears charges for the targeted attack on civilian assets and the resulting explosion.
Defence counsellor Nicola Canestrini disputed these claims, asserting that little concrete proof linked Kuznietsov to the sabotage. She pointed out that Russia itself supplied the networks through which Gazprom and its partners delivered gas to continental Europe. Canestrini described the pipelines as tools of coercion rather than innocent industrial facilities.
“By September 2022 the systems were largely non‑operative,” Canestrini explained. “They functioned primarily as leverage mechanisms amidst the surrounding warfare.” Indeed, Moscow had progressively throttled gas releases preceding the attack, seeking retributive measures for sanctions imposed following the February 2022 incursion.
Investigators soon identified a cell of Ukrainians who allegedly carried out the breach. According to the formal accusation, Kuznietsov traveled from Germany into early September 2022 aboard a forged Ukrainian passport, joining fellow operatives on a privately chartered yacht docked in the Baltic Sea port of Rostock. The vessel departed laden with large quantities of military‑grade explosives and steamed toward the underwater artery beneath the sea near Denmark’s Bornholm island. Below the surface, divers attached timed charges to the pipeline structure; weeks later, the installations exploded, obliterating three of the four carriers.
Prosecutor Schmidt insisted the blast was engineered to render transport routes temporarily immobile, denying Russia the ability to levari revenue from gas sales to sustain the conflict. “What qualifies as a war crime?” the defense queried. Though Kuznietsov will not take a stand in court, his counsel maintains strict confidentiality rules bar prohibited disclosures about past services conducted by Ukrainian elite units.
The infrastructure at issue was owned and managed by Russian energy conglomerate Gazprom as part of a corporate group. At the precise instant of the blast, the lines were shut down and failed to serve any end‑user. Although Nord Stream 1 had ceased deliveries earlier in the year, Nord Stream 2—a newer parallel system—remained inactive and unreleased.
Kyiv vehemently denies orchestration, but the regime expresses satisfaction with the demolition achieved. A secondary figure, partially identified as Volodymyr Z., was detained in Croatia last month and implicated as a diver partner. A local court granted extradition to Germany pending a legal review; his advocate claims the man now seeks asylum. Decision‑makers in the Interior Ministry are evaluating whether Croatian jurisdiction applies, potentially allowing interrogation and document scrutiny.
Since the onset of Russia’s invasion, Germany has emerged as Kyiv’s principal military patron, routinely accusing Muscovy of sabotage and intelligence infiltration. The Nord Stream inquiry has consequently frayed diplomatic ties. German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul commented that President Volodymyr Zelensky rejected Ukrainian culpability, adding that final verdicts will dictate subsequent governmental stances.
Persistent support from Ukrainian diaspora communities in Berlin remains divided, with a small faction protesting the trial. Their demonstrations displayed placards declaring “Russia is a terrorist” and challenging the legality of classified as war crimes when civilian buildings—including residential facilities—were destroyed without lethal human injury.
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