Italy's top appeals court has ruled that a Ukrainian man suspected of involvement in blowing up the Nord Stream gas pipelines between Russia and Germany should be extradited to Berlin.
There, former Ukrainian military officer Serhiy Kuznetsov will face a charge of anti-constitutional sabotage. He is due to be removed from Italy under German police escort in the next few days.
Prosecutors believe Mr. Kuznetsov coordinated and led a group that planted explosives on the pipes deep beneath the Baltic Sea in 2022, though they have not disclosed any evidence.
The case has serious implications for relations between Ukraine and Germany, which is the biggest source of military aid for Kyiv in Europe.
Mr. Kuznetsov's lawyer said his client 'feels like a scapegoat' and is 'very sad' that his government has not spoken out in his defense. 'If he carried out the attack, then he did so because he was ordered to do so because he was for sure a captain of the Ukrainian army,' Nicola Canestrini said after the hearing.
The BBC has seen a copy of Mr. Kuznetsov's military ID among the court papers. He has not commented publicly on whether he was involved in the explosions.
'The Ukrainian government knows exactly where he was every day of September 2022,' his lawyer stated. 'So, if he's innocent, why don't they say it? If he did it, why don't they say it? That's his question.'
Mr. Kuznetsov was arrested in northern Italy in late August, at a glamping site near the city of Rimini where he had booked in for a few nights with his wife and two of their children.
A month later, a second Ukrainian suspect was detained at his home close to Poland's capital Warsaw on another arrest warrant issued by Germany. Volodymyr Zhuravlyov, an amateur deep-sea diver, has lived in Poland with his family since just before Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
In Italy, the mood and the politics surrounding Kuznetsov's case are starkly different. Many Ukrainians view the destruction of the Nord Stream as a heroic act against what is seen as a Russian threat, complicating the extradition matter further.
A supporter stood outside the courthouse in Rome holding a poster reading: 'Serhiy Kuznetsov is a defender, not a criminal.'
