HAMBURG, Germany — A Ukrainian citizen identified as Serhii K. went on trial Wednesday before Hamburg’s Higher Regional Court over the September 2022 explosions that wrecked three of four Nord Stream gas pipeline sections in the Baltic Sea, DW and Reuters reported.
Prosecutors accuse him of being an accomplice to a war crime by attacking civilian energy infrastructure, as well as disruption of public services, causing an explosion and destroying structures. He was arrested in Italy in August 2025 on a European warrant and extradited to Germany. Defence lawyers at the opening argued the bombing may not have been a crime under German law, Reuters said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly denied that Ukraine took part in the attack. “Ukraine has never officially taken part in any operation related to the blowing up of Nord Stream,” he told reporters again in August, DW noted. The case is politically sensitive in Germany, which continues to arm and fund Kyiv while hosting about 1.3 million Ukrainian refugees.
Critics of Ukraine aid, including the far-right AfD and the left-populist BSW, have already linked the defendant to Kyiv’s leadership and demanded explanations or compensation — claims that have not been proven in court. German naval commander Göran Swistek said in 2023 that the operation’s scale pointed to a state actor but argued Ukraine was an unlikely culprit because it would not want to jeopardize German support.
The blasts ended a mega-project that once carried Russian gas to Germany. Nord Stream 1 had already been curtailed by Moscow after the full-scale invasion; Nord Stream 2 never entered service. The trial’s outcome is expected to shape German debate over continued military and financial support for Ukraine.
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