Ukraine’s top prosecutor has explicitly denied any involvement by Kyiv in the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines in 2022, offering instead to form a joint investigation team with Germany to settle the intensifying legal friction between the two allies.
The statement from the Prosecutor General’s office, carried via Reuters, represents Kyiv’s most direct effort to counter growing assertions within German law enforcement that the sophisticated underwater operation was executed by elements tied to the Ukrainian state. The September 2022 explosions severely damaged the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines in the Baltic Sea, permanently fracturing a critical corridor for Russian natural gas exports to Western Europe.
Kyiv Rejects German Charges Against Active Military Officer
According to official statements from the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s office, the investigation conducted by domestic authorities has yielded no indication that state officialdom or military command authorised the attack. The office emphasised that based on evidence collected so far, no official entities or government representatives had issued orders related to the Baltic Sea operations on behalf of Ukraine.
However, Ukrainian authorities acknowledged that their conclusions are provisional, noting that the domestic investigation into these circumstances is not yet complete, and the necessary evidence is still being gathered and examined.
The pushback follows recent moves by German federal prosecutors, who charged a former Ukrainian army officer, identified as Serhii K., with being a co-perpetrator of a war crime over the blasts. German investigators allege that the suspect, who was arrested in Italy and subsequently extradited to Germany, collaborated with other military personnel to execute the underwater bombings to cripple Russian state revenues. The suspect has denied all charges.
A Proposed Alliance in Forensic Fact-Finding
In an attempt to bridge the intelligence gap and de-escalate diplomatic tensions, Kyiv has extended a formal invitation to Berlin to formalise information sharing. The Prosecutor General’s office stated that Ukraine will seek to set up a joint investigation team with German authorities to enable a prompt and transparent exchange of information.
Legal experts note that while Ukraine has maintained consistent cooperation with European investigators, the creation of a formalised joint team would grant Kyiv greater visibility into the specific forensic and electronic evidence Berlin has amassed, as both nations navigate the complex geopolitical fallout of the ongoing war.
An Underwater Sabotage
The September 2022 detonations against the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines took place in international waters within the economic zones of Denmark and Sweden, ripping open the steel-reinforced concrete pipes under approximately 260 feet of water.
Seismologists in Scandinavia registered tremors equivalent to a minor earthquake, while naval patrols quickly identified massive, churning circles of escaping methane gas bubbling to the surface of the Baltic Sea. The precision and scale of the attack immediately triggered a multinational forensic effort, with investigators concluding that several hundred kilograms of military-grade explosives had been meticulously placed directly on the pipeline infrastructure.
In the immediate aftermath of the explosions, the geopolitical blame game intensified as European capitals scrambled to safeguard remaining critical energy infrastructure.
Initial Western suspicions heavily favoured a Russian “false flag” operation designed to indefinitely choke off natural gas supplies to an energy-dependent Europe ahead of winter.
However, as the joint German, Danish, and Swedish maritime investigations progressed, the focus gradually shifted away from Moscow. The forensic trail began pointing toward a deeply clandestine maritime operation utilising a rented pleasure yacht, the Andromeda, leading German federal prosecutors to suspect that a highly specialised team of divers with deep-cover connections to Ukrainian military networks was ultimately responsible.
