Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has denied that his government was involved in the sabotage.
Six underwater explosions in September 2022 destroyed three of the four Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines linking Russia and Germany, triggering years of a blame game over who was behind one of Europe’s most consequential acts of sabotage. Russia, Ukraine, the United States and the United Kingdom have all, at various points, been accused or suspected of involvement with varying degrees of evidence.
After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Berlin moved to end imports of Russian gas. German investigators later concluded the sabotage had been planned by a Ukrainian group as early as 2014, as previously reported by WELT and POLITICO.
Investigators believe Serhii K. commanded the sailing yacht Andromeda, from which the operation was allegedly launched. According to the indictment, he entered Germany via Poland in September 2022 using a forged Ukrainian passport before transporting military-grade explosives by yacht to waters near the Danish island of Bornholm.
German investigators have previously said traces of the explosives HMX and RDX were found aboard the vessel. The man was then arrested in Italy in August 2025, extradited to Germany three months later and has remained in pretrial detention in Hamburg ever since.
Serhii K. denies the allegations. His indictment marks the first time German prosecutors have formally brought the Nord Stream sabotage case before a court.