{"id":581898,"date":"2025-11-20T05:37:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T05:37:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/581898\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T05:37:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T05:37:14","slug":"italy-to-extradite-ukrainian-nord-stream-sabotage-suspect-to-germany-russia-ukraine-war-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/581898\/","title":{"rendered":"Italy to extradite Ukrainian Nord Stream sabotage suspect to Germany | Russia-Ukraine war News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Ukrainian officer Serhii Kuznietsov faces charges in Germany of collusion to cause an explosion, sabotage and destruction of infrastructure.<\/p>\n

Published On 20 Nov 202520 Nov 2025<\/p>\n

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Italy\u2019s top court has approved the extradition to Germany of a Ukrainian man suspected of coordinating the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines<\/a> between Russia and Europe in 2022.<\/p>\n

The suspect, Serhii Kuznietsov, 49, has denied being part of a cell of saboteurs accused of placing explosives on the underwater pipelines in the Baltic Sea, severing much of Russia\u2019s gas transfers to Europe<\/a> and prompting supply shortages on the continent.<\/p>\n

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After Italy originally blocked Kuznietsov\u2019s extradition last month over an issue with a German arrest warrant, Italy\u2019s Supreme Court of Cassation approved the transfer on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Kuznietsov \u201cwill therefore be surrendered to Germany within the next few days\u201d, his lawyer Nicola Canestrini said.<\/p>\n

The suspect, a former officer in the Ukrainian military, has denied any role in the attack<\/a> and has fought attempts to transfer him to Germany since he was detained on a European arrest warrant in the Italian town of Rimini, where he was vacationing with his family, in August.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever great the disappointment, I remain confident in an acquittal after the full trial in Germany,\u201d Canestrini said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Last month, a court in Poland ruled against handing over another Ukrainian suspect<\/a> wanted by Germany in connection with the pipeline explosions and ordered his immediate release from detention.<\/p>\n

Kuznietsov faces charges in Germany of collusion to cause an explosion, sabotage and destruction of important structures.<\/p>\n

German prosecutors said he used forged identity documents to charter a yacht that departed from the German city of Rostock to carry out the attack near the Danish island of Bornholm on September 26, 2022.<\/p>\n

According to extradition documents, prosecutors said Kuznietsov organised and carried out the detonation of at least four bombs containing 14kg to 27kg (31lb to 62lb) of explosives at a depth of 70 to 80 metres (230ft to 263ft).<\/p>\n

The explosions damaged both the Nord Stream 1 and the Nord Stream 2 pipelines so severely that no gas could be transported through them. In total, four ruptures were discovered in the pipelines after the attack.<\/p>\n

Kuznietsov says he was a member of the Ukrainian armed forces and in Ukraine at the time of the incident, a claim his defence team has said would give him \u201cfunctional immunity\u201d under international law.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, members of the European Parliament (MEPs) sent a letter to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressing concern about Kuznietsov\u2019s extradition.<\/p>\n

\"INTERACTIVEAl Jazeera<\/p>\n

\u201cThe destruction of the pipelines dealt a significant blow to Russia\u2019s war machine in its ongoing war of aggression against Ukraine,\u201d the MEPs wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the standpoint of international law, actions undertaken in defence against such aggression, including the neutralisation of the enemy\u2019s military infrastructure, fall within the lawful conduct of a just war,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe, therefore, urge the Italian government to suspend any steps toward extradition until the guarantees of functional immunity and state responsibility are thoroughly and independently assessed,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n

Kuznietsov, who faces up to 15 years in prison if found guilty by a German court, has been held in a high security jail in Italy since his arrest and at one point staged a hunger strike to protest against his prison conditions.<\/p>\n

Six other suspects in the case remain at large.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Ukrainian officer Serhii Kuznietsov faces charges in Germany of collusion to cause an explosion, sabotage and destruction…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[365,2002,2000,299,1824,2199,2597,12,332,7661,657],"class_list":{"0":"post-581898","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-denmark","9":"tag-espionage","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-germany","13":"tag-italy","14":"tag-military","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-russia","17":"tag-russia-ukraine-war","18":"tag-ukraine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115580413714708082","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581898","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=581898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}