German court keeps Ukrainian veteran Serhiy Kuznetsov in custody — his appeal rejected

The German Federal Court has rejected the appeal of Ukrainian veteran Serhiy Kuznetsov, who is suspected of undermining the Nord Stream pipeline. He will remain in custody.

The decision was published on the website of the Federal Court of Germany.

The court ruled that, contrary to the allegations in the complaint, the functional immunity of an official (in Kuznetsov’s case, a military officer) does not create an obstacle to criminal prosecution. Such immunity does not extend to violent acts carried out under the control of an intelligence service.

Germany also has territorial jurisdiction, as the result of the offense — the disruption of the pipelines — also occurred on German territory, where the pipelines ended. The explosions on the gas pipelines themselves occurred in the exclusive economic zones of Denmark and Sweden.

The court also found it unlikely that Kuznetsov could invoke combatant privilege as an excuse. The privilege does not apply to covert activities of military personnel, and the gas pipelines were civilian objects.

The court left open the question of whether there was a suspicion of a war crime under the Code of Crimes Against International Law in this connection.

“Nord Stream” explosions and Serhiy Kuznetsov

On September 26, 2022, three explosions occurred on the “Nord Stream 1” and “Nord Stream 2” pipelines, which run along the bottom of the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany, causing massive gas leaks. Only one of the four strands of the pipeline remained intact.

The US, UK and EU governments have declared a deliberate sabotage. Russia believes that the US and its allies are interested in the bombings. Western and Russian media have written about different versions — from sabotage by the Russians themselves to the involvement of Ukraine.

On August 26, 2025, German investigators issued arrest warrants for six Ukrainians suspected of involvement in the bombing. Ukrainian Serhiy Kuznetsov, who was detained in Italy and suspected of involvement in the sabotage, denies the charges. An Italian court allowed his extradition to Germany.

On October 27, a court in Bologna ordered the extradition of Serhiy Kuznetsov to Germany. The defense appealed to the Italian Supreme Court.

That same month, a Polish court refused to extradite another detainee in the case Volodymyr Zhuravlyov to Germany. The court ruled that Germany had provided insufficient evidence and that the alleged act “was committed in the context of the criminal and genocidal war that Russia has been waging against Ukraine since 2014”. The Polish prosecutor’s office decided not to appeal the decision.

On November 19, the Italian Supreme Court upheld the decision to extradite Serhiy Kuznetsov to Germany. In particular, the court found no evidence in favor of Kuznetsovʼs functional immunity as a Ukrainian military officer. One of the reasons was that no Ukrainian authority officially recognized the sabotage of “Nord Stream” as a military operation.

In November, the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets wrote a letter to the Italian court, in which he admitted for the first time on behalf of the state that at the time of the explosions at “Nord Stream”, Kuznetsov was serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

On November 27, Kuznetsov was extradited from Italy to Germany. He was arrested the next day.

Later, Kuznetsovʼs lawyer Mykola Katerynchuk told Babel that in a German prison the Ukrainian is treated worse than in an Italian one. Kuznetsov lost even more weight — the issue of the required diet has not been resolved, despite the fact that it is mentioned in the court decision and the prosecutorʼs letter. He is allowed to make phone calls only at the request of his lawyer.

The German staff treats the Ukrainian very contemptuously. They put psychological pressure on him to admit guilt, but Kuznetsov will not do this.

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