“Since November, a Ukrainian man named Serhij K. has been in pre-trial detention in Hamburg. According to the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office, he led the group that blew up the Nord Stream pipelines. If charges are brought and admitted by the court, K. will soon have to stand trial before the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court.
The State Security Senate would then likely hear one of the most intriguing political thrillers of recent years—a case with significant potential to cause tension between Kyiv and Berlin.
The explosions in the Baltic Sea in the autumn of 2022 were massive; images of the bubbling gas circulated around the world. In the aftermath, there was much speculation about who might be behind the attacks. However, as German authorities pursued their investigation, one lead became increasingly concrete. It suggests that a group of Ukrainians carried out a daring operation, attaching bombs to the pipeline sections from a sailboat.
Bojan Pancevski, chief correspondent for the *Wall Street Journal*, was among the first to report on the background of these events. He has now written a book that traces the almost unbelievable story of the attacks in detail—even including verbatim dialogue exchanged between the alleged perpetrators. To this end, Pancevski spoke with the Ukrainian masterminds and the suspected attackers, as well as German investigators. The result is a compelling book filled with previously unknown details.
Pancevski himself played a remarkable role at the onset of the conflict. Berlin was blind to the situation at the time, dismissing warnings about the looming conflict. According to Wolfgang Schmidt (SPD), the former Chief of Staff to the Chancellor, it was Pancevski—of all people—who informed him on the eve of the invasion that an attack was imminent. Schmidt subsequently contacted German intelligence agencies and the CIA in Berlin, only to call Pancevski back. The all-clear: there were no signs whatsoever of an imminent conflict. He would not bother the Chancellor. The conflict broke out shortly thereafter.
BND chief Bruno Kahl happened to be in Kyiv at that very moment—yet another sign of how blind the German intelligence agencies were. Pancevski writes that the intelligence chief and his entourage of GSG-9 special forces then raced toward the Polish border in a rental car.
They became caught in a stream of refugees and took nearly two days to reach safety—forced along the way to relieve themselves in roadside ditches.
Before the conflict began, the German government under Angela Merkel had persisted with the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, despite all warnings. Pancevski writes that this close tie to Russia—and Merkel’s policies in particular—paved the way for the full-scale conflict.
Russia had halted gas supplies itself before the pipelines exploded—ostensibly for technical reasons. According to Pancevski, the decision was then made in Ukraine to break the Germans free from Putin’s grip.
Responsibility for this reportedly lies with a group of Ukrainians who planned the operation with the knowledge of the CIA and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy—though the latter denies this.
Civilian divers, tasked with attaching the bombs at a depth of around eighty meters in pitch darkness and under extreme stress, practiced for the mission in flooded former granite quarries. However, the plan was put on hold after Dutch intelligence got wind of the operation and shared the information with allied agencies. It was, in effect, an "open secret" that was also being discussed among the nations bordering the Baltic Sea. Even the Russians—who, according to Pancevski, had infiltrated the BND at a high level at the time—knew about it and dispatched ships to monitor the pipeline's most vulnerable sections. Pancevski reports that the CIA obtained written assurances from the Ukrainians that they were abandoning the plan. But they did not abide by that.
Following the explosions, Sweden, Denmark, and Germany launched investigations. The two Nordic states quickly halted their inquiries—allegedly due to a lack of jurisdiction—even though the explosions had occurred within their respective economic zones.
And while the Germans continued to investigate and speculate, American, British, and other intelligence agencies had long since possessed detailed information about the attack and the perpetrators, according to the book. After all, the Baltic Sea is one of the most heavily monitored regions in the world.
Partner agencies reportedly provided Germany with alleged leads pointing to Russian involvement. Apparently, the aim was to divert attention away from the Ukrainians.
However, the German investigators—whom Pancevski writes about with great admiration—pressed on, making significant discoveries aboard the sailing yacht. There, they secured traces of blood, fingerprints, hair, and explosive residue. The group of perpetrators consisted of six men and one woman; three were soldiers, four civilians. All were trained. Why they left so many traces remains a mystery.
Investigators initially had only a small, featureless photograph of Serhij K., who is now in pre-trial detention in Hamburg. They subsequently obtained his name from Turkish authorities. K.’s family was placed under surveillance. According to the book, when they traveled from Poland to the Czech Republic, German authorities tapped into toll station cameras and tracked the car in real time. K. was eventually arrested while vacationing in Italy. It remains to be seen to what extent he will address these matters in court, should a trial take place.
Bojan Pancevski: "The Nord Stream Explosion." The true story of the sabotage that shook Europe.
HarperCollins Publishers, Hamburg 2026. 368 pp., 22 euros.” [1]
1. Das offene Nord-Stream-2-Geheimnis. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung; Frankfurt. 28 Apr 2026: 6. JULIAN STAIB
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