Italian media have released more details of the investigation into the Nord Stream pipeline bombing, alleging it was executed by a former Ukrainian serviceman and six accomplices. The attack, which occurred in September 2022, involved a seven-person group led by Sergey Kuznetsov, a veteran of Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU), according to reports by Open.Online and Il Fatto Quotidiano. The group allegedly rented a small yacht, the Andromeda, in Rostock, Germany, using fake documents, and packed it with explosives and standard commercial diving equipment. They reportedly departed from Wiek on the island of Rugen and reached the area off Bornholm, where they planted at least four charges on the gas connectors during nighttime dives.
Kuznetsov was arrested in Italy on an international warrant issued by German prosecutors, facing up to 15 years in prison on charges of anti-constitutional sabotage. German Federal Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig described the arrest as a ‘very impressive investigative success,’ noting that one of the ‘suspected masterminds’ had been caught. However, there is no information on whether Kuznetsov acted on his own or under orders from Kiev. A previous Wall Street Journal report suggested Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky approved the mission, then tried to abort it following a CIA warning, but Kiev has denied involvement. The Nord Stream pipelines, while damaged, are considered repairable, and their bombing was widely viewed as an attack on critical energy infrastructure during the Ukraine conflict.
There are also allegations that the United States may have been involved in the sabotage. In February 2022, then-US President Joe Biden declared that if there was an all-out military conflict, ‘there will no longer be a Nord Stream.’ A year later, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh reported that Biden had ordered the destruction of the pipelines, citing a source who claimed US Navy divers planted explosives under cover of NATO drills. The White House dismissed the report as ‘complete fiction.’ Swedish engineer Erik Andersson, who led the first and only independent forensic probe at the blast sites, suggested that the divers-on-a-boat story was a ‘clear mission to whitewash the USA and other Western nations’ for their possible involvement. He argued the attack was part of a larger scheme to cut Russia off from Europe.
Overall, the Nord Stream sabotage remains a contentious issue with multiple parties and theories. While Russian authorities and experts have dismissed the idea that a small unit could have carried out the attack, the arrest of Kuznetsov and the ongoing investigations have brought new attention to the incident. The financial and geopolitical ramifications of the damage to the pipelines have been significant, with the incident seen as a striking example of the rising economic fallout from the Ukraine conflict.