Floating Storage and Regasification Unit (FSRU) Neptune is pictured behind a container painted with a map showing the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which was expected to deliver Russian gas to European households, in Lubmin’s industrial park, northeastern Germany.
JOHN MACDOUGALL / AFP
German prosecutors have charged a Ukrainian citizen of orchestrating the bombing of the Nord Stream gas pipeline four years ago.
German prosecutors have filed charges against Serhii K., a Ukrainian national whose full name cannot be revealed to the pubic under German data protection laws, for coordinating the attack on the pipelines carrying natural gas from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea in 2022.
He is reportedly the same person who was arrested in Italy last summer and extradited to Germany in November.
The suspect denies the charges. Kyiv has also rejected accusations of its involvement in the case.
According to German media reports, the suspect is accused of leading a team of seven accomplices in the operation, which aimed to destroy three of the four Nord Stream gas pipelines. The bombing released record amounts of methane into the Baltic Sea and disabled the multi-billion dollar infrastructure.
Although Nord Stream 2 never went into operation, the two Nord Stream 1 pipelines provided a continuous supply along a 1,200-kilometer stretch of the Baltic Sea, from the Russian coast to northeastern Germany.
It is worth noting that Germany is Ukraine’s largest European source of military aid in its war with Russia.
