German prosecutors have accused Ukrainian authorities of ordering the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines shortly after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Agence France-Presse reported.
The statement was made a day after the indictment of the first suspect.
It is believed that Serhiy K., "and other servicemen prepared, at the request of the Ukrainian authorities, a plan to destroy the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines," the prosecutors' statement said.
Underwater gas pipelines were the target of an explosives attack in September 2022.
The German federal prosecutor's office yesterday filed charges against a Ukrainian citizen accused of complicity in organizing the sabotage in 2022 against the "Nord Stream" gas pipelines; 1 and 2, DPA reported, citing his lawyers.
The federal prosecutor's office did not immediately confirm the details of the indictment.
However, according to German media reports, federal prosecutors are accusing the suspect, identified as Sergiy K. under German data protection laws, of war crimes, causing an explosion and destroying infrastructure.
Investigators believe that Sergiy K. coordinated the operation in the Baltic Sea, according to earlier statements by the prosecutor's office.
The State Security Commission of the Higher Regional Court in Hamburg must now decide whether to accept the charges and when the trial can begin.
The explosions near the Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea in September 2022 caused serious damage to the gas pipeline, leading to its complete shutdown. Before the attack, "Nord Stream 1" was transporting Russian natural gas to Germany, and "Nord Stream 2" had not yet been put into operation.
In the months since the war in Ukraine began, Moscow has repeatedly reduced and even suspended supplies through the "Nord Stream 1" pipeline.
Ukrainian Sergiy K. was arrested in August last year while on holiday with his family on the Italian Adriatic coast on the basis of a European arrest warrant. For months he resisted extradition to Germany, at one point going on a hunger strike, claiming he had been mistreated, DPA noted.