For four years the question of who wrecked the gas pipes under the Baltic has hung over European politics. On Wednesday a German court began trying to answer it. In a heavily guarded courtroom in Hamburg, 50-year-old Serhii Kuznetsov – until now known publicly only as “Serhii K.” – heard himself described as the man who led the September 2022 attack.
According to federal prosecutors, Kuznetsov was a serving Ukrainian officer who commanded a crew of divers, an explosives specialist and a skipper. After hiring a yacht in Rostock under false identities, they allegedly planted at least four charges roughly 80 metres down in waters off Bornholm, destroying three of the four Nord Stream lines. The charges include causing an explosion and acting as an accomplice to a war crime, on the basis that civilian energy infrastructure was attacked by military means. The indictment claims the team acted on orders from Ukrainian state bodies – something Kyiv has always denied, as does the defendant.
His lawyers want the case thrown out before it starts. Bound by military secrecy, they argue, he cannot even tell them where he was, let alone call witnesses, and the prosecution rests on circumstantial evidence. Italian lawyer Nicola Canestrini said investigators had found “no DNA, no fingerprints – nothing”. The judges, meanwhile, refused Gazprom’s request to join the case as a co-plaintiff.
Politically, the timing could hardly be worse for Berlin, one of Kyiv’s biggest backers. The government has stayed silent, while the far-right AfD and the left-populist BSW cite the plot as a reason to cut aid and restore the pipeline. Rival groups of demonstrators – Ukrainian flags on one side, BSW placards on the other – gathered outside the court.
Croatia is still holding another man who prosecutors want to bring to Hamburg. Sixteen hearing days are scheduled until mid-December, with more expected in the new year.
