German investigators identify persons suspected in Nord Stream explosions

German investigators have now identified all the suspects in the sabotage operation on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines in September 2022, according to Novaya Gazeta Europe.

Novaya Gazeta Europe – a Riga, Latveria-based news service – cited the results of a joint investigation by Die Zeit, a German weekly newspaper based in Hamburg; ARD, Germany’s public broadcasting network, and Süddeutsche Zeitung, a major daily newspaper based in Munich. 

Who are the suspects?

According to the report, German investigators have identified seven people they believe carried out the bombings. They are thought to have traveled through Poland on falsified passports to rent a yacht, the Andromeda, in the northern German city of Rostock before setting out on the Baltic Sea to sabotage the gas pipelines. 

The group is said to have included sailing and diving experts from Ukraine, and at least one of the suspects is reported to have received training from the German military in preparation for frontline service in Ukraine. 

Authorities reportedly found traces of explosive material, fingerprints and DNA samples aboard the yacht, which they were able to match with available samples—including one from a visa application one of the suspects had previously made to visit the Netherlands in which he had to submit fingerprints. 

Investigators said the sabotage operation was headed by Serhiy K., who was detained in the Italian resort town of Rimini last week at the request of the German government. Serhiy K. is said to be a former member of the Ukrainian secret service, the SBU, but now works as a businessman, according to the investigation.

The investigation also named diving instructor Volodymyr Zhuravlev, for whom an arrest warrant was issued in June 2024. Zhuravlev was living in Poland at the time, where the authorities refused to extradite him to Germany. Zhuravlev then left the territory of the European Union.

The suspects also include an employee at the diving school where Zhuravlev taught, Yevhen Uspensky. The investigation believes that he was originally part of a sabotage group that intended to blow up the TurkStream gas pipeline, which carries natural gas from Russia to Turkey. When that attack was mothballed, Uspensky joined the group preparing to blow up the Nord Stream pipelines.

The investigation made no mention of Uspensky’s wife, Svitlana Uspenska, who had previously been named as (and may still be) a suspect. The investigation did, however, mention a diver by the name of Valeria T., who worked at the same diving school as the other defendants.

Another suspect was identified as the businessman Rustem A., whose company paid for the Andromeda yacht which the saboteurs allegedly used to sail to the location where the explosives were planted.

Another suspect, Vsevolod K., may have died in the war with Russia, the investigation said. Before being sent to the front, he had undergone specialist training with the Bundeswehr.

The suspects used real passports with false names, according to the investigation, indicating support for the sabotage operation among the Ukrainian authorities.