Germany: Ukrainian national charged over Nord Stream blasts
dw.com • • world
Key Points:
- German federal prosecutors have charged a Ukrainian national, Serhii K., with leading a sabotage operation that destroyed three of the four Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea in September 2022.
- Serhii K., a 50-year-old soldier from Kyiv, was detained in Italy in August 2025, extradited to Germany, and is accused of attacking civil energy infrastructure, a war crime under international law.
- Investigators allege K. commanded the sailing yacht Andromeda, from which the team attached military-grade explosives to the pipelines at depths of up to 80 meters, causing the blasts on September 26, 2022.
- Evidence includes traces of explosives on the yacht, intercepted phone calls implicating K., and testimony indicating a team of seven accomplices, one of whom was killed in Ukraine's ongoing war.
- K. denies involvement and his lawyer is confident of acquittal; he has been held in pre-trial detention in Hamburg since November 2025 after resisting extradition and going on hunger strike.
