Hamburg Court Rejects Motion to Dismiss Nord Stream Sabotage Case

Germany's Federal Prosecutor's Office rejected a defense motion to dismiss criminal charges against Ukrainian citizen Sergey Kuznetsov, accused of involvement in explosions on the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines. This was reported by TASS news agency following a session of the Hanseatic Superior Regional Court in Hamburg on October 27.

"The defense motion cannot be granted," senior prosecutor Stefan Schmidt stated.

The defense had insisted that providing "effective defense" of the defendant was impossible: as a former officer of Ukrainian special forces, Kuznetsov, according to the defense, has no right to disclose the contents of orders and information about those who issued them — including to his own attorneys. Neither the prosecution nor the defense disputed Kuznetsov's involvement in the sabotage during the proceedings.

The Federal Prosecutor's Office charged him with war crimes: conducting explosions, destruction of property, and disruption of critical public infrastructure. According to the investigation's version, Kuznetsov and his accomplices developed a plan to blow up the pipelines on orders from the Ukrainian government and used forged documents to rent a sailing yacht from a German company in order to deliver explosives to the pipelines.

Kuznetsov was detained in Italy in August 2022 and extradited to Germany. Substantive proceedings began on October 27; the first hearing took place on October 14. Another Ukrainian citizen was recently detained in Croatia in connection with the same case.

Explosions on Nord Stream occurred on September 26, 2022: Swedish seismologists recorded two explosions on the pipeline route. Nord Stream AG reported "unprecedented damage" to three pipeline strands.