Ukrainian suspect arrested in Italy over Nord Stream blasts: prosecutors

BERLIN, Germany: A Ukrainian suspect in the explosives attacks on the Nord Stream gas pipelines from Russia has been arrested in Italy, German prosecutors said Thursday.

The suspect, partially named as Serhii K., is accused of being part of a group “who placed explosive devices on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines near the island of Bornholm in September 2022”, the prosecutors said in a statement.

German prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for a Ukrainian man over the blasts on the pipelines, which carried Russian gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea, while The Wall Street Journal reported the explosions were carried out by a Ukrainian crew and approved by Kyiv’s then military commander-in-chief.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Ukraine’s top military commander at the time, Valery Zaluzhny, oversaw the plan to blow up the pipelines used by Russia to deliver gas to Europe.

On 26 September 2022, a series of underwater explosions and consequent gas leaks occurred on Nord Stream pipes, rendering them inoperable. The Nord Stream 1 (NS1) and Nord Stream 2 (NS2) are natural gas pipelines.