A former officer in the Ukrainian army has been charged by German prosecutors with participating in a war crime and leading a team responsible for the 2022 explosions of the Nord Stream gas pipelines, an incident that damaged crucial export routes for Russian gas to Europe. The accused individual, identified as Serhii K under German privacy laws, was indicted at a court in Hamburg on Thursday. Prosecutors claim he and his team, which included divers, a ship captain, and an explosives expert, infiltrated German waters using forged documents, planted military-grade explosives on the pipelines' Baltic Sea floor, and set time fuses to permanently halt gas deliveries and prevent Russia from utilizing revenue from natural gas trade for war efforts. The attacks occurred seven months after Russia initiated its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Serhii K was arrested in Italy in August and extradited to Germany in November, facing a minimum three-year prison sentence if convicted under German law for directing an attack against civilian objects. The damaged pipelines, which terminate at Lubmin in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, are under German jurisdiction due to their impact on German energy security. Ukrainian authorities have yet to respond in detail to the allegations, with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stating that more information is needed before a response can be provided.