Berlin (AFP) - A Ukrainian suspect has been arrested in Italy over the sabotage of the Nord Stream underwater gas pipelines from Russia to Europe in 2022, German prosecutors said Thursday.

The man, identified as Serhii K., is accused of being part of a cell “who placed explosive devices on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines”, they said.

He is “believed to have been one of the coordinators of the operation” in which a group allegedly hired a yacht in the German Baltic Sea port of Rostock to carry out the attacks.

The pipelines that long shipped Russian gas to Europe were hit by huge explosions in September 2022, several months after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine.

Western powers were initially quick to blame Russia, which in turn accused them.

German investigations then pointed to a Ukrainian cell of five men and one woman believed to have chartered the yacht “Andromeda” to carry out the attack, according to Der Spiegel magazine and other media.

Their aim was to destroy the pipelines to prevent Russia from profiting in future from gas sales to Europe.

Serhii K. was arrested in the early hours of Thursday in the Italian province of Rimini on a European arrest warrant, the prosecutors said.

He and his accomplices are accused of using forged identity documents to hire the yacht that departed Rostock to carry out the attacks, the prosecutors said.

Italy’s carabinieri police confirmed that a 49-year-old Ukrainian was arrested without putting up resistance, at a bungalow where he was staying with his family, and taken to a local prison.

German Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig thanked investigators for what she called a “highly complex operation” leading to the arrest.

- Politically fraught case -

Nord Stream had long been controversial for allowing Russian gas to bypass eastern European transit routes and leaving Germany overly reliant on cheap energy from Moscow.

After Russia launched its Ukraine invasion in February 2022, Western powers sanctioned Moscow, which then switched off the gas flow in Nord Stream 1, while Nord Stream 2 never started operations.

Then, in September, seismic institutes reported the underwater blasts and four gas leaks were discovered off the Danish island of Bornholm as gas spewed to the surface.

Two of the leaks were in Denmark’s exclusive economic zone and two in Sweden’s.

German prosecutors last year issued an arrest warrant for another Ukrainian man, named as Volodymyr Z., a diving instructor whose last known address was in Poland.

He was suspected of being one of the divers who planted the explosive devices in an operation that also involved a married couple who ran a diving school, according to public broadcaster ARD and other media.

The case is awkward for Germany and Ukraine, as Berlin has strongly backed Kyiv politically and with defence equipment in its fight against Russia.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said his government knew nothing about any plan to blow up the pipelines.

Hubig stressed that “we stand firmly on the side of Ukraine” against Russia’s “terrible war of aggression”.

But the minister stressed that Germany would also “consistently investigate crimes that are committed under our jurisdiction”.

German and British media have recently reported that Washington and Moscow had discussed the idea of reviving Nord Stream 2, possibly to be run by an American company, during talks to end the Ukraine war.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said in May, shortly after taking office, that his government would “do everything… to ensure that Nord Stream 2 cannot be put back into operation”.