A former Ukrainian military officer has gone on trial in Germany, accused of organising a covert operation to bomb the Nord Stream gas pipelines in 2022, an attack that severed Western Europe's largest source of natural gas from Russia.
The trial opened on Wednesday at Hamburg's Higher Regional Court and is expected to run until February. It marks the first time evidence from the years-long investigation has been aired in open court.
The defendant, a 50-year-old man identified only as Serhii K. under German privacy rules, is accused of leading a team of Ukrainian operatives — including divers and an explosives specialist — in one of the largest infrastructure sabotage operations of modern times. He denies any involvement and is the only person standing trial.
The charges
Serhii K. was arrested in Italy in August 2025 and extradited to Germany in November of that year. Prosecutors allege he and other military members planned the operation on behalf of unidentified Ukrainian state entities.
According to the indictment, roughly three weeks before the attack he entered Germany via Poland using a fake Ukrainian passport. The group is alleged to have used a chartered sailing boat from the northern city of Rostock to reach an area near the Danish island of Bornholm, where they attached timed military-grade explosives to the pipelines on the seabed.
German prosecutors argue that targeting civilian infrastructure and destroying it in this way amounts to a war crime.
The blasts and their aftermath
On 26 September 2022, Swedish seismologists recorded several explosions, about 17 hours apart. Three of the four concrete-encased steel pipelines ruptured, releasing huge plumes of methane into the atmosphere.
Nord Stream 1 had supplied roughly half of Germany's imported natural gas. The twin Nord Stream 2 pipeline was built but never brought into service, after Berlin scrapped its approval shortly before Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Moscow denies bombing its own pipelines and had earlier cut supplies in retaliation for European sanctions. The Ukrainian government has also denied any involvement.
On Monday, Russia said it expected a "fair verdict" naming the perpetrators and those who ordered the operation.
Another suspect, Vladimir Z., a certified diver prosecutors say was one of the group's divers, was arrested in Croatia in August. Last month a Croatian court approved his extradition to Germany.
The Nord Stream case has strained relations between Berlin and Kyiv, even as Germany remains one of Ukraine's strongest supporters, with Russia and Ukraine continuing to exchange attacks.
