The trial of Serhii Kuznietsov, the former Ukrainian army officer accused of organizing the 2022 explosions that crippled the Nord Stream gas pipelines, opened Wednesday at the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court in Hamburg — and his lawyers spent the first day demanding that the charges be thrown out.
Kuznietsov, 50, faces charges of causing an explosion, damaging property, disrupting public service and being an accomplice to war crimes by attacking civilian infrastructure. German prosecutors say he coordinated a team of Ukrainian agents — divers and an explosives expert — working for unidentified Ukrainian state entities: a yacht chartered from the German port of Rostock with forged documents, and at least four timed bombs, each between 14 and 27 kilograms, planted 70 to 80 meters below the surface near the Danish island of Bornholm. Kuznietsov, arrested in Italy in August 2025 and extradited that November, denies any involvement, and his lawyers note his fingerprints were not found on the yacht.
“He is not permitted to speak,” defense attorney Jes Meyer-Lohkamp told the court. “His two immediate superiors told him that he does not have authorization to make any statements — not even to his lawyers.” Anyone who cannot speak out, he argued, cannot be convicted.
The defense argued Kuznietsov was an active-duty soldier bound by Ukraine's secrecy laws, and attacked the war-crimes framing head-on: defense lawyer Nicola Canestrini said the pipelines “were a weapon in the hand of the Russians.” Meyer-Lohkamp also condemned his client's detention conditions, saying he is locked up 23 hours a day in conditions resembling solitary confinement.
The September 26, 2022 explosions ruptured three of the four Nord Stream pipelines in one of Europe's biggest acts of sabotage since World War II. Nord Stream 1 had been Russia's main natural gas route to Germany until Moscow cut supplies in August 2022; Nord Stream 2 was completed but never entered service. Ukraine's president has denied any Ukrainian role in the blasts, and a senior Ukrainian official said Kyiv has no expectations from the trial. In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia expects the trial to name those who carried out the attack along with those who ordered it. A second suspect was arrested in Croatia in August and is fighting extradition to Germany.
The trial is running under strict security, with more than 100 journalists accredited and pro-Ukraine demonstrators outside the courthouse voicing solidarity with Kuznietsov. Sixteen hearing dates are scheduled through December 17, with more planned in January and February 2027; no verdict date has been set.
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