![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/skynews-nord-stream-pipeline_5913391.jpg\")
<\/p>\nItalian police have arrested a Ukrainian man suspected of coordinating the 2022 attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines, Germany’s prosecutor general said on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The suspect, identified only as Serhii K. under German privacy laws, was part of a group of people who planted devices on the pipelines near the Danish island of Bornholm in September 2022, a statement from the prosecutor’s office said.<\/p>\n
Italian police sources close to the investigation told Sky News the suspect was on holiday with his family when he was arrested.<\/p>\n
The sources also said that the arrest was made possible via a police check after the officers were alerted to the case by a European arrest warrant.<\/p>\n
The suspect was found in San Clemente in the Rimini province on the Adriatic coast and is currently in jail pending a ruling on his extradition by the Appeal Court in Bologna.<\/p>\n
He will be brought before a German judge after being transferred.<\/p>\n
Serhii K and his accomplices had set off from Rostock on Germany’s north-eastern coast in a sailing yacht to carry out the attack, according to the prosecutors office.<\/p>\n
It added that the vessel had been rented from a German company with the help of forged identity documents via middlemen.<\/p>\n
No group has claimed responsibility for the explosions in September 2022 that severely damaged three pipelines transporting gas from Russia to Europe.<\/p>\n
It represented a significant escalation in the Ukraine conflict and worsening of the continent’s energy supply crisis.<\/p>\n
Russia and the West have both said they see the damage to the pipelines as an act of sabotage.<\/p>\n
Both the US and Ukraine previously denied any involvement as Moscow blamed the West.<\/p>\n
Authorities acted on a European arrest warrant for the suspect, who faces charges of collusion to cause an explosion, anti-constitutional sabotage and destruction of buildings.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Germany’s justice minister Stefanie Hubig said the arrest was an “impressive success” for Germany’s state prosecutors.<\/p>\n
She added: “The bombing of the pipelines must be investigated, including through criminal prosecution. Therefore, it is good that we are making progress in this regard.”<\/p>\n
Italian police confirmed the arrest to Sky News.<\/p>\n
Denmark and Sweden closed their Nord Stream pipeline investigations in February 2024, leaving Germany as the only
country continuing to pursue the case.<\/p>\n
Danish authorities concluded there was “deliberate sabotage of the gas pipelines” but found “insufficient grounds
to pursue a criminal case”, while Sweden closed its investigation citing a lack of jurisdiction.<\/p>\n
The leaks occurred in international waters but within the exclusive economic zone of Denmark and Sweden.<\/p>\n
The damaged Nord Stream pipelines, which were built by Russia’s state-controlled energy company Gazprom, discharged huge amounts of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, into the air for several days.<\/p>\n
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.<\/p>\n
Please refresh the page for the latest version.<\/p>\n
You can receive breaking news alerts on a smartphone or tablet via the Sky News app<\/a><\/strong>. You can also follow us on WhatsApp<\/a><\/strong> and subscribe to our YouTube channel<\/a><\/strong> to keep up with the latest news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Italian police have arrested a Ukrainian man suspected of coordinating the 2022 attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":361968,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[12,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-361967","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115066649029921140","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=361967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/361967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/361968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=361967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=361967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=361967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}