Berlin — A Ukrainian suspect has been arrested in Italy over the 2022 sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines from Russia to Europe, German prosecutors said Thursday. The suspect, partially named as Serhii K., is accused of being part of a group “who placed explosive devices on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines,” the prosecutors said.
He is “believed to have been one of the coordinators of the operation,” they added.
The Nord Stream pipelines connecting Russia and Germany via the Baltic Sea were damaged in September 2022 by huge underwater explosions, believed to be an act of sabotage.
In the years since the mysterious explosions, Ukraine and Russia have both vehemently denied any involvement.
An Image provided by the Danish Defense forces shows gas leaking at the site of the Nord Stream 2 undersea pipeline, Sept. 27, 2022, after a sabotage attack. / Credit: Danish Defense/Anadolu Agency/Getty
German media have reported the investigation pointed to a Ukrainian cell of five men and one woman who had chartered the yacht “Andromeda” from the port of Rostock and carried out the attack.
Their aim was to destroy the pipelines to prevent battlefield enemy Russia from profiting in future from gas sales to Europe, according to Der Spiegel and other media.
Serhii K. was arrested in the early hours of Thursday in the Italian province of Rimini, the German prosecutors said. He and his accomplices are accused of using a yacht that departed Rostock to carry out the attack, they said.
“The yacht had previously been rented from a German company with the help of forged identity documents obtained through intermediaries,” they added.
The news of the arrest comes about one year after German media reported that a European arrest warrant had been requested for another Ukrainian man, a diving instructor whose last known address was in Poland, in connection with the attack on the Nord Stream pipelines.
The Polish prosecutor’s office told AFP in August 2024 that it had received the warrant for the man — identified only as “Volodymyr Z.” — a couple months earlier “in connection with proceedings against him in Germany.”
The man left for Ukraine at the beginning of July 2024, before he could be detained, the prosecutor’s office said at the time.
German investigators believe Volodymyr Z. was one of the divers who planted explosive devices on the pipelines, according to Germany’s ARD broadcaster and newspapers Die Zeit and the Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
Two more Ukrainians, a man and a woman who prosecutors believe acted as divers in the attacks and are believed to be a married couple who run a diving school in Ukraine, were also identified by investigators at least a year ago, according to the Germany reports.
The arrest announced by the German authorities on Thursday was the first linked to the case.
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