Federal Prosecutor General indicts Ukrainian officer over Nord Stream sabotage

There, during several dives at depths of up to 80 meters, the group is alleged to have placed and detonated four timed explosive charges on the pipelines on the seabed. Specialists from the Federal Criminal Police Office and the Federal Police reportedly found traces of military explosives of the type RDX (hexogen) and HMX (octogen) on the yacht. The detonations on 26 September 2022 severely damaged both pipelines.

Course of events and explosives

According to the investigators' findings, the defendant served as an officer in a special unit of the Ukrainian armed forces and entered Germany on 4 September 2022 via Poland using a forged Ukrainian passport. "The Federal Prosecutor's Office assumes that the plans for the attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines were developed on behalf of state bodies in Ukraine," the indictment states. According to the document, the sabotage operation was aimed at permanently halting Russian gas deliveries via the pipelines "so that Russia could not use the revenues to finance the war in Ukraine."

At the time of the attacks, the pipelines were no longer actively transporting gas, although they were still filled. Russia had already stopped deliveries via Nord Stream 1 shortly beforehand, partly in response to Western sanctions imposed following Russia's attack on Ukraine. Nord Stream 2 had never gone into operation in the first place. Both pipelines had been laid on the bottom of the Baltic Sea to transport Russian gas, among other destinations, to Germany.

Investigations and arrest

The Federal Prosecutor's Office took over the case in October 2022, just a few weeks after the attacks. In August 2025, Serhii K. was arrested in Rimini, Italy, while on vacation, and subsequently extradited to Germany. He has been in pretrial detention in Hamburg since last year. K. filed an application for a habeas corpus complaint against the extradition, which the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe rejected in December 2025.

The Federal Court of Justice justified its decision in December 2025, among other things, by stating that the pipelines also ended in German territorial waters. There is no immunity for intelligence-directed acts of violence that affect the sovereignty of a state concerned. At the end of 2025, the investigators also assumed that the acts had been carried out on behalf of a foreign state.

Defense and international reactions

In addition to Serhii K., the investigators identified a total of seven suspects. Another alleged diver was arrested in Poland in September 2025 and taken into pretrial detention. However, Poland rejected the German extradition request and released the Ukrainian suspect. The then-Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk stated at the time, "it is not in his country's interest to prosecute the man or extradite him to another state." Poland's political leadership had consistently rejected the construction of the Nord Stream pipeline.

Another of the seven suspects is believed to have been killed in the war against Russia, according to investigators. The lawyers representing Serhii K., including a Berlin law firm, confirmed the indictment on Wednesday evening. His Italian defense attorney Nicola Canestrini also commented: "On the contrary: She welcomes it." Canestrini added that the trial would "finally clarify the facts and responsibilities in full and in doing so show that a conviction of the accused is out of the question."

The Berlin law firm representing the accused Ukrainian confirmed the corresponding media reports about the indictment on Wednesday evening. This makes the indictment against Serhii K. the first publicly known indictment against an alleged saboteur of the Nord Stream pipelines. According to further reports by ARD, Süddeutsche Zeitung and Die Zeit, the former soldier is said to have incriminated himself in intercepted phone calls.

Next steps in court

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was reserved about possible backgrounds to the act. "It is still too early to say anything about it at the moment," he said, citing that he was not yet familiar with all the details. The Federal Prosecutor General stated, "The Federal Prosecutor General has brought charges against a Ukrainian" and will continue to advance the case.

The decision on whether to admit the indictment now lies with the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court in Hamburg. A main trial can only be opened after this ruling; a specific trial date has not yet been set. With the indictment, the case is formally justiciable; at the same time, the defense and co-plaintiffs must expect extensive access to the case files.

Overall, the Nord Stream proceedings are the first in Germany in which an alleged saboteur of the pipeline bombings is being prosecuted under criminal law. The peculiarity: Despite the high political explosiveness and the assumption that state bodies in Ukraine could be involved in the case, the German investigating authorities have so far insisted on their jurisdiction.

The Federal Prosecutor's Office pointed out in the indictment that the charges must be assessed independently of the question of state sponsorship. Should the Higher Regional Court admit the indictment, this would be the first trial in Germany to address the issue of state-controlled sabotage of critical energy infrastructure in a conflict with Russia.

The British broadcaster BBC and other international media had already reported in 2022 on the possible Ukrainian background to the attacks. The final clarification of the question of who was behind the sabotage could therefore also be of fundamental importance for the European security architecture in the ongoing proceedings.

The news was broadcast on 02.07.2026 on Deutschlandfunk and previously distributed by the news agency AFP. After around four years of investigative work, the case is now on the desk of the Hamburg judiciary in its entirety for the first time.

In the coming months, it will be eagerly awaited how the Hamburg Higher Regional Court evaluates the indictment and whether it will order the opening of the main trial. Observers expect that, given its political dimension, the case will attract attention beyond Germany's borders.