Germany’s federal prosecutor has for the first time formally accused Ukrainian state authorities of ordering the September 2022 sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines. In an indictment made public on Thursday, prosecutors allege that Serhii K., a former Ukrainian special forces officer, acted “on the orders of state authorities in Ukraine” when he led a team of divers and explosives experts to plant military-grade charges on the seabed near the Danish island of Bornholm. The charges include complicity in a war crime for attacking civilian infrastructure, causing an explosion, and disrupting public services. The suspect, arrested in Italy in August 2025 and extradited to Germany, is now in pre-trial detention in Hamburg.

According to the German prosecutor’s statement, the objective was to permanently halt Russian gas deliveries through the Baltic Sea pipelines and deprive Moscow of revenue to finance its war against Ukraine. The indictment describes how Serhii K. and other military personnel devised the plan shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion, then chartered the yacht Andromeda using falsified documents to transport explosives into international waters. The charges move the investigation beyond the earlier theory of a rogue commando, asserting direct institutional responsibility. The Hanseatic Higher Regional Court in Hamburg will now decide whether to open a trial.

In Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the development as “premature” to comment on, stating his government had not yet received official details. Ukraine has consistently denied state involvement, though some officials have previously expressed satisfaction that the pipelines were disabled. The suspect’s defence team argues he was on active military duty in Ukraine at the time of the explosions and claims functional immunity under international law, a position already rejected by Germany’s Federal Court of Justice. Moscow, which has long accused the United States and its allies of orchestrating the attack, seized on the indictment: the co-leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany party called for an immediate halt to all military aid to Ukraine, while Russian state media framed the charges as vindication of its earlier claims.

The legal step carries significant diplomatic weight. Germany remains one of Ukraine’s largest military and financial backers, and the prosecutor’s office has stressed that the criminal proceedings are separate from political support for Kyiv. Nevertheless, the formal attribution of state-ordered sabotage against critical energy infrastructure that supplied roughly half of Germany’s annual gas needs before the war introduces a new strain into bilateral relations. The investigation continues to identify other suspects, and the court’s decision on whether to admit the indictment is expected in the coming weeks. The case is likely to test the boundaries between judicial accountability and the geopolitical imperatives of the ongoing conflict.