Italy’s highest appeals court has halted the extradition of a Ukrainian national accused of involvement in coordinating the 2022 attacks on the Nord Stream gas pipelines, pausing a case that has drawn international attention.
The Court of Cassation ruled on Wednesday that Serhii Kuznietsov, detained in August under a German-issued European Arrest Warrant, will not be handed over to the German authorities for now.
The decision overturns a September ruling by a Bologna court, which had approved his extradition to face charges of collusion to cause an explosion, anti-constitutional sabotage and destruction of important structures. If convicted in Germany, he would face 15 years in prison.
The pipelines in the Baltic Sea which for years shipped Russian gas to Europe were crippled by large explosions in September 2022 after Russia’sfull-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The 49-year-old Kuznietsov, who says he was in Ukraine at the time of the explosions, was arrested on Aug. 21 near the Italian town of Rimini on a European arrest warrant issued by Germany.
The Court of Cassation supported arguments by the defense that there had been “incorrect legal classification of the facts underlying the European Arrest Warrant,” lawyer Nicola Canestrini said in a statement, according to Reuters.
The case will go before court again, with a date yet to be issued.
Canestrini argued successfully that the pipeline was a legitimate military target for Ukraine, and therefore, as his client was a Ukrainian service member at the time, the action did not rise to the definition of criminal sabotage. German authorities did not consider his military service when issuing the warrant.
He went on to insist that Kuznietsov was denied a fair trial, as he was unable to attend hearings and was given a “wholly inadequate” Ukrainian-to-Italian translator.
“The Supreme Court accepted this reasoning and quashed the decision with remand. The written reasoning will follow in the coming weeks,” he said.
While some countries have a single highest court – e.g. the Supreme Court in both the US and UK – to handle both the top level of appeals and final judgments on constitutional-law challenges, Italy has two separate courts for those respective briefs. Its Corte di Cassazione is the final venue for appeals.
The European Arrest Warrant was designed to streamline the process through which prosecutors in one EU member state can charge a suspect in another. However, the accused is still entitled to an extradition hearing.
Moscow and the West described the 2022 explosions as a deliberate act of sabotage after they cut off Russian gas supplies to Europe.
No one has taken responsibility for the blasts, and Ukraine has denied any role, rejecting such suggestions as “absolute nonsense” after the Wall Street Journal reported that Valery Zaluzhny had overseen the plans in 2024.
Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak told AFP at the time that the explosions “did not stop the war, did not deter Russian aggression, and did not affect the situation on the front line,” implying that Ukraine had no interest in coordinating the attacks.
Polish authorities detained another Ukrainian citizen, identified as Volodymyr Z., on Sept. 30, also under a German warrant.
The man is a diving instructor whom German investigators say sailed from Rostock to the Baltic Sea, dove to the seabed, and planted explosives on the undersea gas pipelines.
Last week, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that it is “not in Poland’s interest” to extradite the Ukrainian man, saying that the pipeline should never have been built and that “Russia… some European countries, German companies, and Dutch companies” were to blame.