Italian police have arrested a Ukrainian man suspected of co-ordinating the attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines, Germany’s prosecutor general said on Thursday, adding he would be brought before a German judge after being transferred.
No one has taken responsibility for the explosions, seen by Russia and the West as an act of sabotage, that severely damaged pipelines carrying gas from Russia to Europe in September 2022, marking a major escalation in the Ukraine conflict and ramping up an energy supply crisis on the Continent.
The suspect, identified only as Serhii K. under German privacy laws, was part of a group of people who planted devices on the pipelines near the Danish island of Bornholm in September 2022, a statement from the prosecutor’s office said.
He and his accomplices had set off from Rostock on Germany’s northeastern coast in a sailing yacht to carry out the attack, it said, adding the vessel had been rented from a German company with the help of forged identity documents via middlemen.
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Authorities acted on a European arrest warrant for the suspect, who faces charges of collusion to cause an explosion, anti-constitutional sabotage and destruction of buildings.
Carabinieri officers arrested him overnight in the province of Rimini on Italy’s Adriatic coast, the German prosecutors’ statement said.
Italian police had no immediate comment. – Reuters
