German critics say that Ukraine ordered the Nord Stream pipeline | Story

A former Ukrainian soldier accused of ‘war crimes’ and leading a group of people to blow up the Nord Stream pipeline.

A German court has indicted a former Ukrainian military officer for his involvement in the Nord Stream 2022 gas pipeline explosion, accusing him of representing the Ukrainian government.

Prosecutors filed a case against the man, identified as Serhii K under German privacy laws, in a district court in the German city of Hamburg on Thursday.

They accused the suspect of being part of a group that attacked civilian property, caused explosions, destroyed infrastructure and disrupted public services.

Serhii K has denied that he participated in the attack.

Kyiv officials said they did not have enough information on the case to respond in detail to the German accusations.

The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said on Wednesday that he had not received any details of the case.

“The relevant authorities in our countries will be contacted, and when we receive more information, we will be able to respond. At the moment, it is too early to speak,” he said.

‘Destroy’

The Nord Stream explosion occurred in September 2022, seven months after Russia began its invasion of Ukraine. The explosion damaged the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, a key route for transporting Russian gas to Europe. The Nord Stream 2 branch was also damaged before it was put into operation.

During the attack, Moscow suspended gas shipments to Europe via Nord Stream 1, blaming Western sanctions and technical difficulties. Europe has criticized Russia for its use of nuclear weapons.

Russia and other Western countries said the threats were destructive.

According to the German decision, Serhii K was a soldier of the Ukrainian army in 2022 and led a group of refugees, a sailor and an explosives expert in Germany on a fake Ukrainian passport in September 2022 and rented a boat using fake documents.

Prosecutors accused the accused and his team of transporting the explosives through international waters to the area near the Danish island of Bornholm before attaching them to pipelines under the Baltic Sea and setting time fuses.

The goal, critics said, was to permanently halt gas shipments through pipelines and prevent Russia from using the proceeds from gas sales to fund its wars.

Serhii K was arrested in Italy in August and extradited to Germany in November.

He faces a minimum sentence of three years in prison for leading an attack on civilians under German law.

The German courts have said that the case is in Germany’s hands because the damaged pipeline ends up in Lubmin in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and has an impact on Germany’s energy security.