Serhii Kuznetsov stays silent as Hamburg trial opens over Nord Stream blast — his lawyer argues bombing was NOT a crime

Serhii Kuznetsov, 50, a former Ukrainian special forces officer accused of leading the 2022 Nord Stream pipeline bombing, refused to testify on the first day of his Hamburg trial, with his lawyer arguing the charges should be dropped entirely. His defence team claimed the pipeline was a "Russian weapon" and a legitimate military target, asking the court: "Is it unlawful to destroy an aggressor's infrastructure without harming any human beings?" Kuznetsov faces charges including causing an explosion, damaging civilian infrastructure, and acting as an accomplice to war crimes.

Prosecutors allege Kuznetsov orchestrated a team comprising four divers, an explosives specialist and a ship's captain, who carried out the attack aboard a chartered yacht using time-delayed charges planted 80 metres down in the Baltic Sea.

His lawyers say he cannot mount a proper defence because Ukrainian law bars active military personnel from disclosing state secrets — leaving him to defend himself, they said, 'with his hands tied'.

The trial is politically explosive for Berlin, which backs Kyiv strongly but whose own investigators identified a Ukrainian cell as the alleged perpetrators of Europe's biggest act of sabotage since World War II.