Italy’s Supreme Court Halts Extradition of Ukrainian Suspect in Nord Stream Sabotage Case

Italy’s Supreme Court on October 15 overturned a decision to extradite Ukrainian national Serhii Kuznetsov to Germany, where he is accused of involvement in the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines, Orda.kz reports, citing The Kyiv Independent.

The court’s decision comes amid ongoing tensions surrounding the unresolved Nord Stream explosions, which destroyed key pipelines linking Russia and Germany and sparked international speculation and competing accusations.

The ruling sends the case back to a new panel of judges at the Bologna Court of Appeal for further review. During the hearing, prosecutors supported one of the defense’s key arguments — that the European arrest warrant contained a misclassification of facts.

Italian police arrested Kuznetsov on August 21 under a German-issued European arrest warrant. German prosecutors suspect him of coordinating the Nord Stream operation, but the 49-year-old denies the charges, saying he was in Ukraine at the time of the explosions.

Separately, Polish authorities detained another Ukrainian citizen, Volodymyr Z., on September 30 in Pruszkow, also under a German warrant on similar charges.