The offshore attack of 2022

Nord Stream, prison for arrested Ukrainian confirmed. He was a secret agent

Next hearing on 3 September to decide on surrender to Germany. According to investigators, the man, who was on holiday in our country, took part in the raid that placed explosives near the island of Bornholm in September 2022, causing severe damage to the pipeline on 26 September

21 August 2025Aggiornato il 22 agosto 2025, ore 16:05

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Fuga di gas da Nord Stream 2 vista dall'intercettore danese F-16 a Bornholm, Danimarca, 27 settembre 2022. Comando della Difesa danese/Forsvaret Ritzau Scanpix/via REUTERS

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The Bologna Court of Appeal confirmed the custody in prison for Sehrii Kusnetzov, the Ukrainian man accused of sabotaging the Nord Stream gas pipelines and arrested in Rimini. Next hearing on 3 September to decide on his surrender to Germany.

Italian police arrested in the province of Rimini Kusnetzov, suspected of participating in the sabotage of the Russian Baltic gas pipelines Nord Stream 1 and 2 in September 2022. The operation, which took place on the night of 21 August, was carried out by the Misano Adriatico Carabinieri in close cooperation with the Service for International Police Cooperation, on the basis of a European arrest warrant issued on 18 August by the German Federal Public Prosecutor's Office and the investigating judge of the German Federal Court of Justice.

In the statement in which the federal prosecutor's office announced the arrest, the German authority explained thatthe man is believed to be among the alleged coordinators of the sabotage of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines.

According to German investigators, the man was part of the group that placed explosives near the island of Bornholm in September 2022, causing severe damage to the pipelines on 26 September. The Danish authorities revealed the underwater explosive damage to the infrastructure, which was full of gas but not functioning at the time of the attack following some of the first sanctions adopted against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

A sailing boat was allegedly used for the operation, which left from Rostock and was chartered with false documents through intermediaries. The suspect is charged with conspiracy to commit an explosion, sabotage against the constitutional order and destruction of infrastructure. After his extradition to Germany, he will be interrogated by the Federal Examining Magistrate.

The stopped on a family holiday

The arrested Ukrainian citizen is 49 years old and had been on holiday in Italy with his family for a few days. After his arrest, he was taken to prison and is at the disposal of the Bologna Court of Appeal for the execution of the European Arrest Warrant. It seems that he was spotted through a control.

Bild: 'Serhii K. had been a secret agent'

He had also been a secret agent Serhii K. That is what Bild writes. According to the article, the man was an eminent figure in the Ukrainian army and had previously worked for the SBU intelligence service. He had also led Kiev's air defence units in the first months of the war in 2022. The action against Nord Stream was assigned to him in May 2022, together with two soldiers and a civilian diver. The tabloid also points out that President Volodimir Zelensky only learnt of the plan ('Operation Diameter') later and ordered it to be halted, but the commando went ahead anyway, carrying out the sensational attack on the pipeline on 26 September.