Germany charges Nord Stream suspect with attacking pipeline on behalf of Ukraine

BERLIN, July 2 - German federal prosecutors have charged a former Ukrainian army officer with being the co-perpetrator of a war crime over the 2022 Nord Stream gas pipeline blasts, accusing him of acting on behalf of Ukrainian state entities.

Prosecutors said on Thursday they had filed charges against Serhii K. - identified under German privacy rules only by his first name and initial - before a regional court in Hamburg.

They accuse him of acting as a co-perpetrator in a war crime involving an attack on civilian objects, causing an explosion, destroying infrastructure and disrupting public services.

Authorities in Kyiv said on Thursday that they did not have enough information about the case to respond in detail to German prosecutors' allegations.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday that he had yet to receive full details of the indictment, which had been served that day. 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.

ATTACK AIMED TO HALT MOSCOW'S GAS REVENUE, PROSECUTORS SAY

Russia and Western countries have described the September 2022 blasts, which followed Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine earlier that year, as sabotage.

The explosions damaged the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, a vital route for Russian gas exports to Europe, as well as the Nord Stream 2 branch, which had yet to enter service.

At the time of the alleged attack, Moscow had recently halted gas deliveries via Nord Stream 1, blaming Western sanctions and technical issues, though Europe accused it of weaponising energy supplies.

According to the German indictment, Serhii K. was an officer in the Ukrainian army in 2022 and, acting on behalf of Ukrainian state entities, helped develop a plan with other military personnel to destroy Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2.

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

The defendant, leading a team of professional divers, a skipper and an explosives expert, entered Germany on a forged Ukrainian passport in September 2022 and boarded a yacht rented using forged identification documents, they said.

He and his accomplices then transported large quantities of military-grade explosives through international waters to a location near the Danish island of Bornholm before attaching them to the pipelines on the Baltic Sea floor and setting time fuses, the prosecutors' statement said.

Serhii K. was arrested in Italy in August and transferred to Germany in November. He has denied involvement in the blasts.

His German legal team was not immediately available for comment on Thursday. However, his lawyer in Italy said he welcomed the indictment.

"We do not fear the indictment — we demand that the facts be established, and in public," Nicola Canestrini said in a statement.

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

German courts have treated the case as falling within German jurisdiction because the damaged pipelines end at Lubmin in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and their loss affected Germany's energy security and internal safety. REUTERS