German court’s arrest warrant for Ukrainian in Nord Stream sabotage case bares half-truths

The arrest warrant issued last week by a German court for Ukrainian Serhii Kuznietsov may have confirmed what was suspected for long: that Ukraine was responsible for the 2022 sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines in the waters near Denmark and Sweden.

Undersea explosions on Sept. 26, 2022, damaged pipelines that were built to carry Russian natural gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea. The damage spiked tensions as European countries moved to wean themselves off Russian energy sources since the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Kuznietsov has denied involvement in the explosions, saying he was in Ukraine at the time of the blasts and was serving as an army captain. He arrived in Germany after Italy’s highest court approved his extradition on Nov. 19 after he was detained on a European arrest warrant three months earlier at a campground near the Adriatic coastal city of Rimini, Italy, where he was vacationing with his family.

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Nord Stream attack is military action: Polish court

In October, a Polish court blocked the extradition to Germany of another Ukrainian man suspected of involvement in the 2022 attack on the gas pipelines and ordered his release. The Polish judge said the attack on the pipelines should be seen as a military action in a “just war,” and therefore not subject to criminal responsibility on the part of an individual.

The Italian court that ordered the extradition of Kuznietsov did not take this argument.

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Trial may uncover several untold truths

Some reports in the media had claimed that the Biden administration was given prior warning by a Ukrainian whistleblower, who said that a six-person team of Ukrainian special forces was planning to rent a boat, dive to the sea floor and blow up the Nord Stream project. The operation was reportedly led by Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces.

After the attack, the media fuelled speculation that Russia had destroyed its own pipeline, another claim of a Russian false-flag operation.

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However, since the attack involved leasing a yacht in the German port of Rostock, using forged IDs, and a screen of intermediaries, it could not have been a simple operation devised and carried out by a few and hinted at the involvement of a bigger authority, like a state. Kuznietsov insists that he was an army captain serving in Ukraine at the time.