A Ukrainian national has become the first person to stand trial over the explosions that ruptured the Nord Stream gas pipelines linking Russia to Germany, a case that has strained relations between Berlin and one of its most important wartime allies.
Serhii Kuznetsov appeared before a court in Hamburg on Wednesday morning, accused of playing a leading role in the sabotage operation that destroyed three of the four parallel pipelines in the Baltic Sea in September 2022. German prosecutors have characterised the attack as a war crime under the country's code of crimes against international law, describing it as an assault by military means on civilian infrastructure.
The 50-year-old, who was extradited from Italy late last year, entered the courtroom looking relaxed and at times smiled during preliminary exchanges in which he confirmed personal details including his name and birthplace. He wore headphones and listened closely to a Ukrainian translation of proceedings. Until now, German prosecutors had referred to him only as Serhii K and circulated images with his face obscured, but a court spokeswoman confirmed he had chosen to waive his right to anonymity.
The hearing drew a packed public gallery, reflecting the intense scrutiny the case has attracted in Germany and beyond. Proceedings began with prosecutors reading out the charges, which allege that Kuznetsov directed divers and an explosives specialist to carry out the attack on the pipelines. He denies the allegations, as does a second suspect who is currently contesting extradition from Croatia.
Defence lawyers wasted little time in challenging the prosecution's case, arguing that it should be dismissed outright. Nicola Canestrini, an Italian defence lawyer representing Kuznetsov, told reporters outside the courtroom that four years of investigation had yielded no direct evidence linking his client to the blasts. He said prosecutors had failed to find a single witness, forensic material, DNA or fingerprints. The defence's central argument is that the case rests entirely on circumstantial evidence assembled over a lengthy inquiry.
Canestrini and his colleagues also advanced a more unusual argument: that because Kuznetsov is a soldier bound by military secrecy, he cannot receive a fair trial. They contend that if he were engaged in a separate classified operation at the time of the attack, he would be unable to disclose that alibi or identify witnesses who could corroborate it without breaching his obligations. The defence further told the court that his extradition from Italy was legally flawed because the war crime allegation was not mentioned at the time of the handover request.
The blasts, which occurred on 26 September 2022 off the Danish island of Bornholm, rank among the most dramatic acts of sabotage in modern European history. They came seven months after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, at a time when tensions between Moscow and Western capitals were already at their highest point in decades. Western suspicion initially pointed towards Moscow, though no country was directly blamed in the immediate aftermath.
Context surrounding the explosions was already highly charged. Russia had halted gas flows through Nord Stream 1 weeks before the attack, and Nord Stream 2 had never entered operation. Berlin had frozen the multi-billion-dollar Nord Stream 2 project shortly before the invasion, and there had been reports of unusual Russian naval activity in the area before the blasts. President Vladimir Putin accused the United States and Britain of responsibility, referring to "the Anglo-Saxons", allegations both governments denied.
Investigators from Sweden, Denmark and Germany initially pursued the case in parallel, but both Sweden and Denmark eventually closed their inquiries. German prosecutors then concentrated on a group of deep-sea divers who had rented a yacht named the Andromeda from the northern German port of Rostock. They later stated that traces of subsea explosives had been detected in samples taken from the vessel.
Despite the potential diplomatic fallout with Kyiv, German prosecutors pressed ahead. In January 2025, the German federal court of justice ruled that the matter fell within German territorial jurisdiction, holding that prosecutors had a responsibility to act because the attack undermined Germany's internal security. The indictment alleges that the saboteurs conceived the plot while acting on the orders of Ukrainian state agencies.
That allegation has been consistently rejected by Ukraine's leadership. President Volodymyr Zelensky has always maintained that his country had nothing to do with the explosions. The case has nevertheless exposed differences of opinion between Kyiv and Berlin, with Ukrainian officials arguing that the context of the war with Russia cannot be ignored when assessing the pipeline's significance.
Oleksandr Merezhko, who chairs the foreign affairs committee in Ukraine's parliament, pointed out that the blasts occurred during wartime and described Nord Stream 2 as nothing more than a tool Russia used to prepare for its invasion. He told the BBC that Ukraine had no confirmation of the German account, indicating that Kyiv does not accept the prosecution's narrative. His comments underline the political sensitivity of a trial that could complicate a crucial wartime partnership.
The proceedings in Hamburg are expected to continue over an extended period, with the court set to weigh competing claims about evidence, jurisdiction and the legal classification of the attack. For Germany, the case represents a rare prosecution of alleged sabotage against civilian infrastructure on European soil, while for Ukraine it raises uncomfortable questions at a moment when Western military and financial support remains vital. The outcome could carry implications not only for the defendant but also for how European governments handle politically fraught investigations involving allies.
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