Ukrainian man held in Italy over Nord Stream pipeline blasts

Berlin: A Ukrainian citizen suspected to be one of the coordinators of the undersea

explosions in 2022 that damaged the Nord Stream gas pipelines between Russia and Germany has been arrested, German prosecutors said Thursday.

The suspect, identified only as Serhii K in line with German privacy rules, was

arrested overnight by officers from a police station in Misano Adriatrico, near the Italian city of Rimini, federal prosecutors said.

Explosions on September 26, 2022 damaged the pipelines, which were built to carry Russian natural gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea.

The damage added to tensions over the war in Ukraine as European countries moved to wean themselves off Russian energy sources, following Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.