A Ukrainian colonel has confirmed that the man accused of coordinating the Nord Stream sabotage was serving in Ukraine’s military at the time of the blast, according to German outlet Der Spiegel.
Journalists obtained a Defense Ministry letter to the Verkhovna Rada’s Commissioner for Human Rights confirming that Sergey Kuznetsov served as a captain in military unit A0987 from August 10, 2022, to November 28, 2023. That designation corresponds to Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces command. Former Kuznetsov commander Roman Chervinsky corroborated the information. The Nord Stream blast occurred in late September 2022.
“At that time, Sergey was under my command; he carried out all the orders of our unit and did not leave the troops without permission,” Chervinsky told reporters, but declined to comment on the specific explosion.
German authorities also suspect Chervinsky of directing the pipeline operation. He is currently under investigation in Kyiv in a separate case. In April 2023, he was arrested after a failed operation to lure a Russian pilot to defect; instead of flying across the front line, the pilot allegedly passed planned landing coordinates to Russian forces. Russia then shelled the Kanatove airfield, killing three people and destroying two aircraft. Chervinsky was charged with exceeding his authority; investigators say the mission proceeded without proper consultations and approvals. He later faced a new charge: allegedly demanding $100,000 from a businessman while posing as a State Tax Service official.
Kuznetsov was extradited from Italy to Germany in November. He had been detained over the summer in Italy’s Rimini province while on a family vacation. German prosecutors accuse him of complicity in the explosions and of subversive activity against the constitutional order. He is expected to stand trial in Hamburg.
While in an Italian prison, Kuznetsov staged a weeklong hunger strike, his lawyer Nicola Canestrini said, demanding proper food, a healthy environment, dignified detention conditions, and equal treatment with other inmates regarding family visits and access to information. On October 27, the Bologna appeals court ordered his extradition to Germany.
On October 17, a court in Warsaw refused Germany’s extradition request for Ukrainian national Volodymyr Zhuravlyov, who is also suspected in the Nord Stream blasts, and lifted his pretrial detention. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk had earlier said it was “not in the interests of Poles to accuse or hand over” to Germany a suspect in the pipeline attacks.
German investigators believe seven Ukrainian citizens took part in the operation: four divers, an explosives specialist, the captain of the yacht Andromeda, and Sergey Kuznetsov, who allegedly commanded the mission.
