BERLIN, July 2. /TASS/. Germany's Federal Public Prosecutor General has confirmed that charges have been filed against a Ukrainian national suspected of involvement in the sabotage of the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines.

Prosecutors believe he and his accomplices developed a sabotage plan on behalf of Ukrainian government agencies.

"On June 20, the Federal Public Prosecutor General filed charges against Ukrainian citizen Sergey K. with the Hanseatic State Regional Court in Hamburg. There are sufficient grounds to suspect him of being an accomplice to a war crime involving attacks on civilian objects, carrying out explosions using explosives, destroying construction sites, and disrupting public utility infrastructure," the statement said. According to the Federal Public Prosecutor General, Sergey K. served as an officer in the Ukrainian army in 2022. The prosecutors noted that "he and other [Ukrainian] servicemen, acting on the orders of Ukrainian government agencies, developed a plan to destroy the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines. The goal was to prevent Russia from receiving revenue from gas trade."

"A group consisting of several professional divers, a skipper, and an explosives expert was formed under the suspect’s direction to carry out the plan," the statement said. According to the German investigation, Sergey K. entered Germany via Poland on September 4 using a forged Ukrainian passport. The Federal Public Prosecutor General adheres to the version previously published by the German media. According to this version, the sabotage group used a sailing yacht, which was rented in Rostock through intermediaries using forged documents, to transport explosives to the pipelines. "The suspect and his accomplices transported large quantities of highly potent explosives suitable for combat use on board this yacht into international waters as far as the Danish island of Bornholm," the prosecutors pointed out. The saboteurs then attached the explosives, which were equipped with remote detonators, to the pipes.

The Federal Public Prosecutor General emphasized that the Nord Stream pipeline previously supplied half of Germany’s annual gas demand.

The Ukrainian national is currently being held in a pre-trial detention center in Hamburg, where the trial is expected to take place. He was arrested in Italy last summer and extradited to Germany.

On September 26, 2022, unprecedented damage was recorded on three branches of the Nord Stream pipeline and the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which had not yet been put into operation. The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office opened a criminal investigation into an act of international terrorism.