Spiegel: The CIA knew about the plan to undermine “Nord Stream” and initially supported it

In 2022, representatives of the US CIA met with Ukrainian sabotage specialists, who told them about a plan to blow up the “Nord Stream” gas pipelines. At first, the Americans supported it.

Spiegel writes about this, citing sources in Ukraine.

According to the interlocutors, the first meeting between CIA representatives and Ukrainian saboteurs took place in Podil in 2022. Then the Americans were told about plans to blow up gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea.

“They told our guys that it was good and would work,” the publication quotes one of its sources. After the first meeting, repeated negotiations took place, during which the Ukrainians received a signal that the CIA could allegedly even help with funding.

Later, a German investigation found that the US had changed its position and tried to dissuade the Ukrainians from implementing the plan, but to no avail. The CIA denied knowledge of the gas pipelines being blown up.

“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”.

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. The next day, he was arrested. Later, Kuznetsovʼs lawyer Mykola Katerynchuk told Babel that the Ukrainian was treated worse in a German prison than in an Italian one.

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