Germany charges Ukrainian over Nord Stream pipeline blasts
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Gas leak from Nord Stream 2 pipeline as seen from an Danish F-16 interceptor jet over Bornholm island, Denmark, September 27, 2022. Danish Defence Command/Forsvaret Ritzau Scanpix/via REUTERS/File Photo
By Kirsti Knolle
BERLIN, July 1 (Reuters) - Germany's top prosecutor has indicted a Ukrainian national over the 2022 explosions that crippled the Nord Stream gas pipelines under the Baltic Sea, moving one of Europe's most politically sensitive sabotage cases closer to trial.
The indictment against the man, identified under German privacy rules only as Serhii K, was served on Wednesday, Berlin law firm Menaker, which represents him, told Reuters. It gave no details of the charges.
German public broadcaster ARD and media outlets Sueddeutsche Zeitung and Die Zeit, which first reported the move, said prosecutors accuse him of attacking civilian energy infrastructure, causing an explosion and destroying structures. The federal prosecutor's office declined to comment.
BALTIC PIPELINE SABOTAGE
According to arrest-warrant documents, earlier press releases and a December 2025 detention ruling by the Federal Court of Justice, prosecutors allege that Serhii K helped coordinate a team that used a sailing yacht, the Andromeda, to place explosive devices on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines near Denmark's Bornholm island in September 2022.
Prosecutors and the court suspect the Andromeda's crew consisted of a coordinator, a skipper, four deep-sea divers and an explosives specialist. They say Serhii K is suspected of acting as the on-board coordinator and team leader, not as a diver or bomb expert.
Serhii K has denied involvement.
The blasts, which Russia and Western countries have both described as sabotage, knocked out key routes for Russian gas to Europe months after Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, deepening an energy crisis that hit Germany especially hard.
German courts have treated the case as falling within German jurisdiction because the damaged pipelines end at Lubmin in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and their loss affected Germany's energy security and internal safety.
Court records cited by the ruling describe the suspect as a Ukrainian national who was an officer in a Ukrainian special forces unit at the time.
He was arrested in Italy last August and transferred to Germany in November, where a judge activated a German arrest warrant.
(Reporting by Kirsti Knolle, writing by Miranda Murray and Maria Martinez; editing by Thomas Seythal and Kevin Liffey)
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