Ukrainian man detained in Italy on suspicion of blowing up Nord Stream pipelines

A Ukrainian man identified only as Serhiy K. has been detained in the Italian city of Rimini on suspicion of involvement in blowing up the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines in September 2022, Germany’s Federal Public Prosecutor General announced on Thursday.

A criminal case has been opened against the man in Germany for complicity in causing an explosion, sabotage and the destruction of property, the press release said. The Public Prosecutor General said Serhiy K. could be one of the men who helped coordinate the operation to blow up the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines near the Danish island of Bornholm.

The prosecutor claims that the suspect and accomplices transported explosives from the German port of Rostock using a sailing yacht which had been rented from a German company via intermediaries using forged paperwork. The man will appear before a judge after he is extradited from Italy, according to the press release.

Leaks occurred on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines in Denmark’s exclusive economic zone in late September 2022. German investigators subsequently suggested that the Ukrainian military could be involved in the explosions. Dutch military intelligence also intercepted information about potential sabotage being planned by Ukraine months before the explosions.

In November 2023, Der Spiegel wrote that the Nord Stream explosions had been coordinated by Colonel Roman Chervinsky, a former commander in Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces. According to the report, six of his subordinates rented the yacht Andromeda using forged documentation and placed explosives on the gas pipeline using deep-sea equipment.

Germany issued an arrest warrant in August 2024 for Ukrainian diving instructor Volodymyr Zhuravlev for his part in the sabotage operation. Two Ukrainian diving school employees, Yevhen Uspensky and his wife Svitlana, were also named as suspects in the case, though no arrest warrants have been issued for them.

Nord Stream is a network of offshore pipelines under the Baltic Sea via which Russia provided Germany and western Europe with natural gas. Though completed, the €9.5-billion Nord Stream 2 pipeline was not certified by the German authorities following the start of the war, and never went into operation.