ROME: An Italian court on Tuesday ordered a Ukrainian man arrested over the 2022 sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines linking Russia with Europe to be extradited to Germany to face charges.

Serhii Kuznietsov, arrested in Italy last month on a German warrant, denies involvement and will appeal the ruling, his lawyer Nicola Canestrini said.

Kuznietsov, who says he was a member of the Ukrainian armed forces at the time, is accused of being part of a cell which placed explosives on the underwater pipelines in September 2022.

He faces up to 15 years in jail if found guilty in Germany, according to the ruling by the court in the northern Italian city of Bologna.

The pipelines that for years shipped Russian gas to Europe were damaged by huge blasts just months after Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Western powers who back Kyiv were initially quick to blame Russia, which in turn accused them.

German investigations have identified a Ukrainian cell of five men and one woman as the perpetrators of the blasts.

When he was arrested, German prosecutors said Kuznietsov had used forged identity documents to charter a yacht, which departed from the German city of Rostock to carry out the attacks.

Kuznietsov says he was in Ukraine at the time of the explosions, and will “appeal... the Bologna court of appeal’s decision to order his surrender to Germany”, his lawyer said in a statement. Italy’s Court of Cassation is expected to rule on the case in around a month’s time, Canestrini said. In the meantime, Kuznietsov is being held in a high-security prison in northern Italy.

In court, according to Tuesday’s ruling, Kuznietsov’s team argued that even if he had been involved, he could not face the charges as they stand as he was a soldier following orders at a time of war. Canestrini insisted the “military nature of the alleged acts entails functional immunity” under international law.

Published in Dawn, September 17th, 2025