The sabotage of September 2022

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On 26 September 2022, explosions destroyed three of the four lines of Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 in the Baltic Sea, near the Danish island of Bornholm. Only one line of Nord Stream 2 remained intact.¹ Sweden and Denmark investigated and closed their proceedings without naming the perpetrators. The German Federal Public Prosecutor continued its investigation and in 2024 issued an arrest warrant against a Ukrainian citizen. In August 2025, Italian police arrested another Ukrainian suspect on a German warrant.² The question of who ordered the sabotage remained disputed at the time of writing. The sabotage turned Nord Stream AG, which had until then been a functioning company, into a company without an asset that could earn income. Gazprom had already reduced the flows through the pipeline in the summer of 2022 and stopped them completely at the end of August, citing technical problems with a turbine. The explosions ended any prospect of a resumption. When Nord Stream AG sued its insurers in London for the damage to the pipeline, the insurers argued that the damage fell under the exclusions for war and for acts of government, a defence that the High Court accepted in July 2026.³

Notes

Wikipedia, "Nord Stream pipelines sabotage", en.wikipedia.org: explosions on 26 September 2022 near Bornholm damaged both pipes of Nord Stream 1 and pipe A of Nord Stream 2 in the Danish and Swedish exclusive economic zones; Swedish Prosecution Authority, press release of 7 February 2024, aklagare.se: sabotage of 26 September 2022. ↩
Swedish Prosecution Authority, "The prosecutor closes the Swedish investigation concerning gross sabotage against Nord Stream", 7 February 2024, aklagare.se (closure for lack of Swedish jurisdiction); AP, "Denmark Closes Probe Into Nord Stream Blasts...", 26 February 2024 (via dtnpf.com); Wikipedia, "Nord Stream pipelines sabotage": European arrest warrant issued by Germany in June 2024 against Volodymyr Z., a Ukrainian diver; Generalbundesanwalt, press release of 2 July 2026, generalbundesanwalt.de: Serhii K. arrested on 21 August 2025 in the province of Rimini on a European arrest warrant, transferred to Germany in November 2025 and indicted before the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court in Hamburg. ↩
Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer, "High Court rules against Nord Stream AG in pipeline explosions insurance claim", 2026, hsfkramer.com: Nord Stream AG v Lloyd's Insurance Company S.A. and Arch Insurance (EU) DAC [2026] EWHC 1685 (Comm), Dame Clare Moulder; claim of about EUR 570 million dismissed because the war exclusion and the government-acts exclusion in Exclusion 2.i applied; Insurance Journal, "Insurers Avoid €580 Million Hit From Nord Stream Pipeline Blasts", 6 July 2026, insurancejournal.com. ↩

For general information only. This article does not constitute legal or tax advice, does not replace advice on an individual case and creates no lawyer-client relationship. It reflects the legal position as of October 2026.

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Dr Alexander Ressos, TEP

Rechtsanwalt/Attorney-at-Law

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The sabotage of September 2022

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