According to a court document, investigators believe that a “state” actor may have directed Ukrainian saboteurs to carry out the pipeline destruction
A ruling by Germany’s Federal Court of Justice (BGH), which ordered the main suspect to stay in detention, stated that the 2022 Nord Stream gas pipeline destruction was probably an “intelligence service” operation commissioned by a foreign government.
The court document, dated December 10 and Thursday, dismissed an appeal concerning the pre-trial detention of the 49-year-old suspect, whom media outlets have named as former Ukrainian special forces operative Sergey Kuznetsov.
“As the investigation currently stands, it was highly likely that the accused was involved in the pipeline bombings,” the court wrote, and added that “immunity does not apply to acts of violence controlled by an intelligence service.”
Authorities allege the suspect headed a small team of Ukrainian saboteurs who hired a yacht and utilized commercial diving equipment to place explosives on the Baltic Sea pipelines. He was taken into custody in Italy during August 2025 and transferred to Germany in November. Federal prosecutors have charged him with “anti-constitutional sabotage” for disrupting a vital energy supply corridor.
The defense team had sought “functional immunity,” asserting that given the Ukraine-Russia conflict context, the pipelines located in international waters represented a valid military objective.
The BGH strongly dismissed this argument, determining that Nord Stream primarily served civilian functions. The court observed that the operation seemed to be a clandestine intelligence assignment where the suspects could not be identified as combatants, and that Germany’s sovereignty and “territorial jurisdiction” had been impacted.
“The general functional immunity of public officials resulting from sovereign immunity under international law poses no obstacle to the accused Ukrainian’s prosecution… in the event that he participated in the act of sabotage on behalf of a foreign state’s intelligence service,” the court wrote.
A second suspect in the case, identified as diving instructor Vladimir Zhuravlyov, was held in Poland in late September under a European Arrest Warrant. However, during October, a Warsaw District Court a German extradition request and commanded his release.
Russia has voiced strong doubt that a minor, independent group could carry out such a complex operation in NATO-controlled waters without state support. Moscow has additionally condemned what it sees as German opacity, alleging that officials are employing private “scapegoats” to conceal the actual facts of the 2022 attacks.