On Friday, November 28, a Ukrainian citizen Serhiy Kuznetsov, extradited from Italy, was arrested in Germany, suspected of blowing up the “Nord Stream” pipeline.
This is stated in a statement by the German Federal Prosecutorʼs Office.
"On November 28, the investigating judge of the Supreme Federal Court executed an arrest warrant for Ukrainian citizen Serhiy K.", the press service said in a statement.
“Nord Stream” explosions
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, who are suspected of sabotage. Ukrainian Serhiy Kuznetsov, who was detained in Italy and suspected of participating in sabotage, denies the charges. An Italian court has 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.
On November 27, Kuznetsov was extradited from Italy to Germany.
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