Sabotage of the Nord Streams: Hamburg Court Refuses to Close Proceedings Against Ukrainian Officer

Sabotage of the Nord Streams: Hamburg Court Refuses to Close Proceedings Against Ukrainian Officer

At the Higher Regional Court of Hamburg 27 October, the hearing continued in the case concerning the sabotage of the pipelines “Pivnichnyy Stream-1” and “Nord Stream-2”, in which a Ukrainian citizen and serviceman, Serhii Kuznetsov, is accused. At the hearing the court rejected the defense attorneys’ motion to close the proceedings, reports a ZN.UA correspondent from the courtroom.

This was the second hearing in the case. During it, letters from Ukrainian servicemen and colonels Roman Chervinskyi and Yurii Semeniuk were read in court. Both Chervinskyi and Semeniuk stated that Kuznetsov in the summer and autumn of 2022 was directly subordinate to Chervinskyi in the Special Operations Forces.

“The methods and results of conducting the resistance movement (Ukraine against Russia - ZN.UA) are a state secret. Serhii Kuznetsov signed a non-disclosure agreement regarding classified information. I do not give him (Kuznetsov - ZN.UA) permission to disclose information (that was known to him - ZN.UA) under my command,” reads Chervinskyi’s letter.

In response, the prosecutor in the case said that the lack of permission to testify does not limit the accused’s right to defend himself.

At the previous hearing on 14 October, Kuznetsov’s lawyers filed a motion to close the proceedings. It was prompted by the fact that at the time the investigation believes the sabotage occurred, the defendant was a serviceman. Kuznetsov refused to testify because, according to his lawyers, he might reveal something in testimony that, as a serviceman, he is not allowed to disclose.

The defense also argues that the Nord Stream pipelines are a financial and political component of the Russian Federation. Through these pipelines, according to Kuznetsov’s defenders, Russia generated profits that funded the war in Ukraine, and exerted pressure on EU member countries to lift sanctions on Russia.

Kuznetsov is accused of having led a group of 6 people in the autumn of 2022 that rented a yacht in the German city of Rostock and sailed to the shores of the Danish island of Bornholm, where they planted explosives in the waters of the Baltic Sea. According to the investigation, at about 02:03 and at about 19:04 on 26 September 2022, the explosives damaged three of the four strings of the Nord Stream pipelines.

Kuznetsov’s lawyers say there are no witnesses who saw Kuznetsov on the yacht and that his DNA was not found on it. They also believe the investigation has no direct evidence against Kuznetsov.

Kuznetsov was detained in Italy in the summer of 2025 and was handed over to Germany at the end of November. Later, Ombudsperson Dmytro Lubinets stated that holding the Ukrainian in a German remand prison in solitary confinement for 23 hours per day, in a section for “particularly dangerous” prisoners, could be considered torture. In August, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukraine had no involvement in the sabotage and is ready to assist the investigation. He commented on the case after the detention in Croatia of a second Ukrainian wanted by Germany.

On why the theory of a “Ukrainian trace” in the sabotage of the Nord Streams does not hold up to scrutiny, ZN.UA’s article “Who and Why Invented That Ukraine Blew Up the Nord Streams?” explains Mykhailo Honchar, president of the Center for Global Studies “Strategy XXI”.