HAMBURG, October 14. /TASS/. The first hearing in the case of the Nord Stream gas pipeline explosions took place at the Higher Regional Court in Hamburg, Germany, amid tightened security measures.

The trial began four years after the attack. Ukrainian national Sergey Kuznetsov is the defendant in the case. The Office of the German Federal Prosecutor believes that what he did can be classified as a war crime.

TASS has compiled the key details about the hearing.

Defendant

- Ukrainian national Sergey Kuznetsov is the defendant in the case.

- He was detained in Italy in August 2025 and transferred to Germany.

- During the first hearing, Kuznetsov confirmed his identity and said that he had been born in Omsk on January 2, 1976.

- Another Ukrainian citizen was detained in Croatia recently.

Charges

- The Office of Germany’s Federal Prosecutor believes that Kuznetsov’s actions should be considered a war crime, a TASS correspondent reported from the courtroom.

- The suspect and his accomplices, also service members, acted on orders from Ukrainian government agencies, a prosecutor from the German Federal Prosecutor's Office said during the Hamburg hearing.

- Investigators believe that the saboteurs used forged documents to rent a sailing yacht from a German company and transported explosives to the Nord Stream pipelines.

- Earlier, the court admitted the indictment against the Ukrainian national for trial on the merits and opened the main proceedings.

- Judges came to the conclusion that there was enough evidence to suspect Kuznetsov of committing a war crime using banned methods of warfare by attacking civilian facilities, carrying out a blast, damaging property, and disrupting public services.

- Kuznetsov declined to speak to the court, exercising his right to remain silent.

Defense team’s stance

- Kuznetsov’s defense team said that, as a service member, he was unable to discuss the circumstances of the incidents, the people who gave him orders and the details of those orders.

- According to his lawyer, this makes a fair trial is impossible.

- The defense also argued that the Nord Stream pipelines could not be considered as purely civilian facilities in the context of the Ukraine conflict.

- The defense team plans to seek a dismissal of the charges.

Trial

- The first hearing of the case took place at the Hamburg Higher Regional Court.

- The hearing lasted a little over two hours.

- The next hearing is set for October 27.

- The court has scheduled 24 hearings through the end of the year.

- Further hearings are planned for February, but they have yet to be finalized.

- Over 100 journalists have been accredited to cover the trial.

- A rally calling for an investigation into the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines took place in Hamburg ahead of the first hearing.

- The rally was organized by the BSW party.

Nord Stream blast case

- On September 26, 2022, unprecedented damage was recorded on three strings of the Nord Stream pipelines and the never-commissioned Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

- The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office opened a criminal case over an act of international terrorism.

- Russian Ambassador to Germany Sergey Nechayev said earlier that all of Moscow’s initiatives regarding the investigation into the sabotage of the Nord Stream and Nord Stream-2 gas pipelines were being ignored.