Ukrainian man arrested for suspected connection to Nord Stream pipeline attacks

 RIMINI - A man of Ukrainian origin has been arrested in Italy on charges of involvment in the underwater explosions that damaged the Nord Stream gas pipelines between Russia and Germany in 2022 as announced by the German Federal Prosecutor's Office and the Italian Carabinieri.

 The suspect, a 49-year-old identified as Serhii Kuznietsov, was arrested on Wednesday night in the province of Rimini, where he was on holiday with his family. The German authorities added that they believe he is one of the coordinators of the operation. The man was on the yacht chartered for sabotage, according to the allegations.

 He was identified in the residence on the Romagna Riviera through the house alert system. He was then monitored and followed, once it was confirmed, the carabinieri intervened during the night.

 “The defendant is strongly suspected of collectively causing an explosion with explosives, unconstitutional sabotage and destruction of buildings”, explains a note from the German prosecutor's office in Karlsruhe. The arrest was carried out by the Misano Adriatico Carabinieri, in collaboration with the International Police Cooperation Service.

 According to what was written in the European arrest warrant, Serhii K. was part of a group of people who in September 2022 planted some explosive devices in the gas pipelines ‘Nord Stream 1’ and ‘Nord Stream 2’, near the island of Bornholm. As already known, for transport the group used a sailing yacht departing from Rostock. The boat had previously been chartered by a German company through intermediaries, using false identity documents.

 The devices exploded on September 26, 2022, damaging pipelines built to transport Russian natural gas to Germany via the Baltic Sea. The damage deepened tensions related to the war in Ukraine, as European countries were disengaging from Russian energy sources, after the Kremlin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The Nord Stream 1 pipeline was Russia's main natural gas supply route to Germany until Moscow cut off supplies at the end of August 2022.

 The Nord Stream 2, on the other hand, never entered service because Germany suspended its certification process shortly before the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February of that year. Russia accused the United States of organizing the explosions, but Washington denies its involvement. Pipelines have long been criticized as posing a risk to Europe's energy security, increasing reliance on Russian gas.

 In 2023, German media reported on the involvement of a pro-Ukrainian group in the sabotage. Ukraine rejected the insinuations, however, and German officials expressed caution regarding the issue.

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