Italian police have arrested a Ukrainian man suspected of coordinating the attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines in the months that followed Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The explosions nearly three years ago left gas billowing from Nord Stream 1 and 2 – two major conduits that transported Russian gas to Europe – and prompted a huge operation to find who was responsible.
The origin of the explosions has been a subject of intense speculation and further stoked political tensions in Europe following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Neither of the pipelines were actively transporting gas to Europe at the time of the leaks, though they still held gas under pressure, and both Ukraine and Russia denied any involvement.
Germany’s federal prosecutor’s office announced the arrest. In a statement they said that the suspect, named only as Serhii K under German privacy laws, “belongs to a group of people who planted explosive devices in the gas pipelines Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 near the island of Bornholm in September 2022.”
