German prosecutors accuse Kyiv of ordering 2022 Nord Stream sabotage

Indictment against alleged leader of gas pipeline attack claims former Ukrainian army officer was directed by state

German prosecutors have accused Ukrainian “state authorities” of ordering the 2022 explosives attack on the Nord Stream gas pipelines linking Russia with Europe, a charge likely to ignite tensions between Kyiv and Berlin, its biggest military backer.

The sabotage in the Baltic Sea by a team of assailants almost entirely destroyed the seafloor infrastructure of the key source of Russian gas to Germany.

A suspect who was arrested last August in Italy and extradited to Germany in November was indicted this week. He was named at the time of his capture as Serhiy Kuznietsov.

The federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement it had charged him with war crimes “for an attack on a civilian site” as well as causing an explosion and disrupting public services.

Crucially, the office said Kuznietsov, then an officer in the Ukrainian army, had, together with other members of the military, devised the plan to destroy Nord Stream pipelines 1 and 2 “on the orders of state authorities in Ukraine” after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

The Nord Stream 1 pipeline was a vital route for Russian gas exports to Europe, while Nord Stream 2 was yet to enter service.

“The aim was to permanently halt gas supplies via the pipelines and prevent Russia from using the revenue from natural gas trade to finance its war effort,” the prosecutors said.

At the time of the attack, Moscow had recently choked off deliveries via Nord Stream 1, citing western sanctions and technical issues, though European countries accused it of weaponising gas supplies. Germany, the EU’s top economy, was forced to scramble in the ensuing months to meet its energy needs.

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said on Wednesday he was yet to receive full details of the indictment, which had been served that day, Reuters reported. ​The list of charges was published on Thursday.

“The relevant authorities of our ‌countries will get in touch, and when ‌we receive more details, we will probably be able to respond. For now, it is too early to speak,” he said.

Germany has overtaken the US as Ukraine’s single biggest national military backer. The German government did not immediately comment on the charges.

According to the indictment, a group was formed to carry out the plot comprising professional divers, a skipper and an explosives expert “under the leadership of the accused”.

Kuznietsov allegedly entered Germany via Poland on 4 September 2022 using a forged Ukrainian passport, the prosecutors said.

Shortly afterwards, he is alleged to have boarded an ocean-going sailing yacht with the other members of the group. The vessel had previously been chartered from a German company in Rostock using fake IDs, according to the prosecutors’ case.

Kuznietsov and his accomplices allegedly transported large quantities of weapons-grade explosives to a site near the Danish island of Bornholm and the group “affixed explosive devices fitted with timers to the gas pipelines running along the seabed”.

The devices detonated on 26 September, causing severe damage to the two pipelines and released record amounts of methane into the atmosphere.

“Prior to the incident, Nord Stream 1 transported around half of Germany’s annual natural gas needs for energy production,” the prosecutors said.

Suspicion had initially focused on Russia and the US, which had long criticised the pipelines for increasing western dependence on Moscow, before falling on Ukraine.

People who allegedly had detailed knowledge of the incident told German media they had considered it an attack on a legitimate military target because the profits from gas deliveries had helped bankroll Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Under German law, the war crime charge of directing an attack against civilian objects carries a minimum prison sentence of three years, or one year in less serious cases.

The courts have treated the case as falling within their jurisdiction because the damaged pipelines end at Lubmin, north-east Germany, and their loss affected the country’s energy security and domestic safety.

The case is expected to go to trial in the autumn in Hamburg.

The far-right Alternative für Deutschland party, which opposes German military support for Ukraine, is likely to seize on the case in the run-up to elections this September as a means to press the government to cut off its aid to Kyiv. The AfD holds the lead in national opinion polls.

Reuters contributed to this report