The key facts
- The Hamburg court scheduled 19 additional hearings from February to June 2027
- The defendant is former Ukrainian special operations officer Serhii Kuznetsov; his guilt has not been established
- The proceedings began on October 14, 2026, four years after the explosions
The trial will drag on for at least another six months
The proceedings over the sabotage of the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines will last at least until mid-June 2027. The Higher Regional Court of Hamburg has scheduled 19 more hearings, the court's press office head, judge Maraike Franzen, said — as reported by Life.ru. The additional hearings are spread over five months: six will take place in February, three in March, four in April, five in May and one in June. The date for the end of the trial has not yet been set.
Who the defendant is and what he is charged with
Standing before the court is former officer of the Ukrainian special operations forces Serhii Kuznetsov. He is charged with a war crime related to an attack on civilian objects, as well as organizing an explosion, destruction of structures and disruption of public utilities. However, his guilt has not been established by the court. Kuznetsov was detained in Italy in August 2025 and then handed over to Germany. The proceedings in Hamburg began on October 14, 2026 — four years after the explosions on the gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea.
Context of the investigation
The 2022 explosions damaged three of the four strings of the two pipelines. Russian President Vladimir Putin called what happened direct terrorist attacks. According to the outlet, investigators in the West failed to identify the main masterminds of the terrorist attack, and Moscow is not given access to the case materials. German journalist Oliver Schröm conducted his own investigation into the sabotage and concluded there was a CIA trail in the pipeline bombings — this version remains his own, not one confirmed by the investigation.
