Nord Stream pipelines sabotage

On 26 September 2022, a series of underwater explosions and consequent gas leaks occurred on 3 of 4 Nord Stream pipes, rendering them inoperable. The Nord Stream 1 (NS1) and Nord Stream 2 (NS2) are two of twenty-three natural gas pipelines between Europe and Russia. The leaks were located in international waters, but within the economic zones of Denmark and Sweden. Both pipelines were built to transport natural gas from Russia to Germany through the Baltic Sea, and are majority owned by the Russian majority state-owned gas company, Gazprom.

Before the leaks, the pipelines were filled with natural gas but were not transporting it as a consequence of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The leaks occurred one day before Poland and Norway opened the Baltic Pipe running through Denmark, bringing in gas from the North Sea, rather than from Russia as the Nord Stream pipelines do.

Russia asked for an international investigation at the UN Security Council which was rejected with 3 votes in favor out of 15. Denmark, Germany and Sweden each initiated separate investigations, describing the explosions as sabotage. The Swedish and Danish investigations were closed in February 2024 without identifying those responsible, while the German investigation was ongoing. On 21 August 2025, the Italian police arrested a Ukrainian man on suspicion of being involved in the sabotage, following European arrest warrants issued by German authorities and on 30 September near Warsaw Polish police arrested another Ukrainian, who had evaded arrest since August 2024. As of September 2025 the German investigation reportedly had identified seven suspects including former members of a private diving school in Kyiv, one of whom has died. In October 2025 the suspect arrested in Poland was released when a Polish court denied the German extradition request. In July 2026, London's High Court ruled against a 579 million Euro insurance claim for the Nord Stream Pipeline reasoning that a war exclusion clause applied with the Russo-Ukrainian war being a significant cause for the sabotage and that a government was behind the sabotage even if no specific perpetrator could be identified.