Serhiy K. (49) will still Germany have to answer for diversion on Nord Stream which resonated with the world three years ago. K. is in custody in Italy, where the Supreme Court of Cassation has now approved his extradition to Germany after several weeks of struggle.
That Ukrainian is considered the mastermind of the operation in which, according to German investigators, Ukrainian commandos blew up both legs of a powerful gas pipeline that until then supplied the German economy with cheap Russian gas.
K. and his partners are suspected of causing an explosion and unconstitutional sabotage. He will probably answer before a court in Hamburg.
He denies guilt.
The Ukrainian died this August while on a family vacation in Italy. Apparently, he did not expect an arrest, even though there was a European warrant. Because previously K. had traveled to several European countries without any problems.
He denies guilt, and was on a hunger strike for a time because of the allegedly bad conditions in the prison. His lawyer in Italy, Nicola Canestrini, says he believes in an acquittal in Germany.
Although he denies the involvement of his protégé, Canestrini also said: "Whoever carried it out - if it was an operation in the sign of Ukrainian resistance, how can people be prosecuted?"
In Germany they don't think so. For a long time there has been speculation in that country that the Russians blew up their gas pipeline themselves, because previously, after the start of the total invasion of Ukraine, they themselves stopped the flow of gas to Germany.
Then the weekly Spiegel published a spectacular report with findings from the investigation that the Ukrainian sabotage group that worked with divers and explosives near the Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea is suspected for everything.
Pipes full of salt
The gas pipeline is still badly damaged, and it is believed that there are still millions of cubic meters of gas in it. The owner, the company Nord Stream, which is mainly backed by Russia's Gazprom, allegedly set aside 633 million euros for repairs, but there are at least three questions.
First, what is the actual condition of the gas pipeline into which seawater has been entering for years, and can it be repaired just like that. Second, the EU sanctions against Russia also include the maintenance of gas pipelines. And thirdly, it is politically difficult to imagine that anyone in Berlin would now stand up for the repair, let alone the resupply of Russian gas.
On the other hand, the absence of favorable Russian energy sources - which Germany compensated elsewhere - has cost the largest economy of the European Union, which has been in recession for years, a lot. The prices of energy products have exploded, which citizens also feel in their wallets.
Poland refuses to cooperate
German investigators believe that K. led a team of seven people, four of whom were divers. It is believed that they rented the sailboat "Andromeda" on the island of Riga for diversion, but they were taking a break in Poland. There they were even controlled by Polish border guards, but they did not see anything suspicious.
And they could, according to German investigators, see a mountain of explosives. Another Ukrainian was in pre-trial detention in Poland for a while, but that country refused to extradite him to Germany. The court there stated that the evidence is thin and that the explosion was in international waters, so it must be conducted as a military action, not a classic criminal offense. Now that Ukrainian is free.
In any case, for years, Germany had primarily Poland and the Baltic states against it, when it comes to the Nord Stream, and especially the Nord Stream 2, an additional gas pipeline that never went into operation.
