Tusk: Germany Should Shame Nord Stream Builders, Not Saboteurs

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said Germany should not focus on prosecuting suspects in the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage, arguing instead that those responsible for building the infrastructure should bear the political blame.

"Those who should be ashamed are the people who built the gas pipelines, not those who took them out of service," Tusk said.

His comments reflect Poland's long-standing opposition to Nord Stream, particularly Nord Stream 2, which Warsaw has argued increased Europe's dependence on Russian energy and allowed Russian gas to reach Germany while bypassing traditional transit countries in Central and Eastern Europe, including Poland and Ukraine. Poland held that position even before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Tusk spoke as Germany's investigation into the September 2022 explosions has entered a new phase. On August 19, Ukrainian citizen Vladimir Z. was arrested in Pula, Croatia, under a European arrest warrant issued by Germany. German federal prosecutors suspect him of belonging to a group that planted explosives on the pipelines.

According to the German investigation, Vladimir Z. is a professional diver who allegedly participated in an operation led by former Ukrainian serviceman Serhiy K. Prosecutors say the group used a sailing yacht to transport explosives to the area near the Danish island of Bornholm. A Croatian court must now decide whether Vladimir Z. will be extradited to Germany.

Serhiy K. was arrested in Italy in August 2025 and extradited to Germany three months later. German prosecutors brought charges against him in June 2026. He is accused, among other offenses, of involvement in a war crime involving an attack on civilian objects, causing an explosion, destroying infrastructure and disrupting public services. K. has denied involvement in the sabotage.

German prosecutors allege that K. and other members of the group acted on behalf of Ukrainian state structures. That allegation remains part of the indictment and has not been established as fact. Ukraine's prosecutor's office said in July 2026 that its own investigation had not established Ukrainian state involvement and remained ongoing.

The Nord Stream explosions took place on September 26, 2022, in the Baltic Sea near Bornholm. Three of the four pipelines belonging to Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 were damaged.

Nord Stream 1 had been a major route for Russian natural gas deliveries to Germany, although Russia had already suspended supplies in late August 2022, roughly a month before the explosions. Nord Stream 2 had never entered service. Germany suspended its certification process shortly before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

German investigators have concluded that the explosions were deliberate acts of sabotage. Prosecutors say the operation involved a group including professional divers and an explosives specialist.

Investigations by Denmark and Sweden were eventually closed without publicly identifying a perpetrator, while Germany continued its criminal investigation. German authorities have since taken legal action against Ukrainian citizens they believe were connected to the operation.

The case remains politically sensitive for Germany, Poland and Ukraine. Berlin is pursuing criminal proceedings against those whom its investigators believe participated in the destruction of critical infrastructure, while Warsaw continues to argue that the Nord Stream project itself represented a strategic threat to Europe's energy security by deepening reliance on Russian gas and bypassing Central and Eastern European transit states.