German prosecutors report that an individual suspected of involvement in the 2022 Nord Stream pipeline explosions, which transported Russian gas to Western Europe, has been apprehended in Italy. The suspect allegedly served on the sailboat used in the bombing.
Italian authorities have detained a Ukrainian man, identified as Sergey K, on suspicion of being connected to the Nord Stream gas pipeline sabotage, as stated by German prosecutors on Thursday.
Sergey K was apprehended near Rimini based on a European arrest warrant. German investigators suspect he led the unit responsible for the September 2022 explosions that damaged sections of the pipelines.
Initially, the attacks that ruptured both Nord Stream 1 and 2 in the Baltic Sea were initially and questionably attributed to Russian operatives. However, German prosecutors later linked a rented sailing yacht to the operation and connected it to Ukrainian nationals.
Investigators claim Sergey K was part of the group that planted explosives on the pipelines near Bornholm Island in September 2022 and allegedly coordinated the operation. He and his associates are said to have used a sailing yacht that departed from Rostock, Germany. The yacht was previously rented from a German company through intermediaries who used falsified identification.
“Following extradition from Italy, the accused will be presented before the investigating judge of the Federal Court of Justice,” the prosecutor’s office stated.
Germany’s Federal Prosecutor General has been investigating the explosions for over two years, suspecting sabotage and the detonation of explosives. The explosions were considered an attack on vital energy infrastructure and a key example of the escalating economic repercussions of the Ukraine conflict.
In 2023, journalist Seymour Hersh published a report alleging that then-US President Joe Biden ordered the destruction of Nord Stream. According to a source who spoke with Hersh, US Navy divers planted the explosives a few months prior under the guise of a NATO exercise. The White House refuted the report, deeming it “complete fiction.”
“`