After the New Year holidays, the administration of the Hamburg prison improved the conditions of detention for Ukrainian Serhiy Kuznetsov, who is suspected of involvement in the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines in 2022. According to his lawyer Mykola Katerynchuk, the changes became noticeable after numerous complaints, – his representative said.
“Serhiy has started to be fed according to his diet (Kuznetsov is vegan, – ed.). He was provided with a laptop, albeit without internet access. So he finally got the opportunity to familiarize himself with the case materials. In addition, he met with a German lawyer. We expect that on January 15 his Ukrainian consul may visit him”
According to Katerynchuk, the management of the Hamburg prison improved the detention conditions for his client only after numerous complaints from lawyers. Before that, the administration allegedly ignored that Kuznetsov does not eat foods of animal origin, and restricted his right to communicate with the defense and to familiarize himself with the case materials.
“I want to draw attention that in Germany DNA samples were taken from Serhiy, and German lawyers consider that this happened illegally. The question arises: why did the justification for his extradition request from Italy state that they have a sample of his DNA?”
On November 27, 2025, Italy handed Kuznetsov over to German authorities. He was in Karlsruhe, in the state of Baden-Württemberg. The Ukrainian Parliament’s Human Rights Commissioner, Dmytro Lubinets, appealed to his German colleagues to give this case special attention and to monitor the respect for the rights of the Ukrainian.
On November 28, the German Federal Supreme Court placed Kuznetsov in custody. According to reports, he was detained in Hamburg’s Federal Prison, as it allegedly meets all European standards for the detention of arrestees.
Case of Serhiy Kuznetsov: On August 18, 2025, the German Federal Supreme Court issued an arrest warrant on suspicion of sabotage – the explosions of the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines, which blew up on September 26, 2022. Investigators believe that the Ukrainian led a group of six people who sabotaged sections of the pipelines and then remotely detonated them. In Germany, Kuznetsov faces up to 15 years in prison. On August 21, 2025, Italian police arrested Kuznetsov on suspicion of blowing up the Nord Stream gas pipeline. On November 4, the Ukrainian declared a hunger strike, demanding respect for basic rights in prison. His lawyer Nicolo Canestrini said that the Italian prison did not provide a diet for his client, causing his health to deteriorate. On November 11, the Ukrainian ombudsperson Lubinets said that Kuznetsov ended the hunger strike. On November 19, the Italian Supreme Court rejected his appeal against the Bologna Court of Appeal’s decision, confirming his extradition to Germany. The Ukrainian denies any involvement in the sabotage of the Russian gas pipelines. In October 2025 in Poland, a court rejected Germany’s request to extradite Ukrainian Volodymyr Zhuravlov, who is also suspected of blowing up gas pipelines.
Questions regarding the respect for rights and the further fate of the Ukrainian’s case remain under close scrutiny by international institutions and Ukrainian representatives.
