Nord Stream trial opens in Germany, defense seeks dismissal

The trial of a former Ukrainian special forces officer, Serhii Kuznietsov, opened in the northern German city of Hamburg on Wednesday amid considerable public and press interest. Kuznietsov is accused of leading the September 2022 sabotage operation that put the undersea Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines linking Russian to Germany out of action . The pipelines remain inactive four years later, with no sign of plans to ever reactivate them as Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine heads into its fifth winter. Prosecutors accuse the Ukrainian of participation in a war crime by targeting civilian infrastructure, but his defense lawyers on Wednesday argued that the case should be dismissed entirely on multiple grounds.