Nord Stream trial: How German police followed the evidence - to Ukraine

Image source, Swedish Coast GuardImage caption, Three of the four Nord Stream pipelines were ruptured by explosions in September 2022BySarah RainsfordEastern and Southern Europe correspondentSerhii K appeared relaxed as he checked in to the glamping resort near Italy's Adriatic coast with his wife and young children.Dressed in shorts, sandals and a dark baseball cap, the former Ukrainian Special Forces soldier strolled back and forth, chatting with the receptionist and dipping repeatedly into a bowl of free snacks.But German police were already closing in on him.After a painstaking investigation, they had concluded that Serhii K had commanded Europe's biggest act of sabotage in decades: a series of explosions in September 2022 deep beneath the Baltic Sea that ripped through the giant Nord Stream pipelines and ruptured the supply of Russian gas to Germany.Next week, following his extradition to Germany and months in isolation in a high security prison, Serhii K will go on trial in Hamburg. He is charged with causing an explosion and a war crime – attacking civilian infrastructure – allegedly acting on behalf of "state agencies of Ukraine".Both he and his country have denied any invo...