HAMBURG — A Ukrainian former military officer who denies any part in the attack sat in a German courtroom on Wednesday as a federal prosecutor told judges that the destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines was carried out “on the orders of Ukrainian state agencies,” the first time the case has been heard in open court.
The defendant, identified under German privacy rules only as Serhii K., is charged as an accomplice to a war crime at the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court. He says he is innocent. The court has set two hearings a week until at least February, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. The trial follows the charges over Nord Stream sabotage that Germany announced in July.
The case now rests on a claim bigger than one man: that Ukrainian state authorities ordered the blasts of September 26, 2022. The indictment summary says that “at the end of February 2022, he and other military personnel, on behalf of state authorities in Ukraine, developed the plan,” with the aim of halting gas deliveries via the pipelines permanently.
Prosecutors say the group used a sailing yacht, the Andromeda, rented in Rostock, to carry explosives into the Baltic Sea, Sputnik reported. TASS reported that investigators believe forged documents were used to hire the vessel. Kyiv has denied any involvement, RFE/RL reported.
The defence says the evidence is not there. Jes Meyer-Lohkamp, a German lawyer for the defendant, said prosecutors “have not provided any direct, conclusive evidence of our client’s involvement” and that the court must decide whether Nord Stream was a legitimate military target. Nicola Canestrini, his Italian lawyer, said there is “no smoking gun.” German outlets that say they have seen the full indictment report that the defendant told his wife in a monitored call from custody in Italy that his lawyer had advised him to admit it was “an official military operation,” RFE/RL reported.
Moscow has said it expects the trial to name names. “We expect the perpetrators to be named, as well as those who ordered the attack,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday, adding that “no one has any doubt about who was actually behind it,” TASS reported. Stefan Meister of the German Council on Foreign Relations, quoted by RFE/RL, said the key political question is the role of Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the presidential administration, and that “there we still have no proof that they were really involved.”
Germany has identified seven Ukrainian suspects. One was in the dock on Wednesday.
