Nord Stream: Gas, politics and war

In September 2022, six months after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Nord Stream gas pipelines that run through the Baltic Sea between Russia and Germany were damaged by undersea explosions. 

Now, nearly two years later, German public prosecutors are now searching for a Ukrainian suspect — who has apparently fled back to Ukraine. DW looks at the sequence of events.

2005: German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder signs a declaration of intent with Russian President Vladimir Putin to build the Nord Stream 1 pipeline. The goal is to bring Russian gas to Germany via the Baltic Sea, bypassing transit countries. The first proposals for the idea date back to the 1990s.

2006: Nord Stream AG is founded to plan and implement the project. Russia's state-owned Gazprom and several European energy suppliers are involved, as not only the Germans are interested in the gas supply.

2010: Construction begins on Nord Stream 1, a 1,224 kilometer-long (about 760-mile) twin pipeline connecting Vyborg in Russia with the German town of Lubmin, in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

2011/2012: With the launch of the pipelines, the operator says they will be able to supply Europe with gas for at least 50 years. According to Nord Stream AG, construction costs totaled €7.4 billion ($8.1 billion at today's conversion rates)

Russia annexes Crimea, project continues

2013: Planning begins for Nord Stream 2, two additional 1,250-kilometer pipelines that will essentially run parallel to Nord Stream 1.

2014: In March, Russia illegally annexes Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula. But German Chancellor Angela Merkel decides to carry on with the pipeline project.

2015: The first Nord Stream 2 contracts are signed. Once again, Gazprom and several European energy suppliers are involved.

Rising resistance in EU, US

2016: From the start of the pipeline project, Ukraine, Poland and particularly the Baltic states expressed their reservations, citing their own security interests. Following the annexation of Crimea, they begin to more vehemently express their misgivings. The EU issues its own warnings. Opposition to the project also grows in the US in the wake of Donald Trump's election as president, with Trump warning that Germany is becoming too dependent on Russian energy supplies.

The German government ignores all concerns and presents Nord Stream not only as the answer to Europe's energy supply security, but also as an instrument for securing peace through trade.

2018: Construction begins on Nord Stream 2. Merkel admits for the first time that it's not just a private-sector project, and that "of course, political factors must also be taken into account." But for her, it's still out of the question to put a stop to the project.

2019: The US ups its tone, threatening sanctions. Richard Grenell, then US ambassador to Germany, writes threatening letters to German companies involved in Nord Stream.

2021: Nord Stream 2 is completed. Shortly after taking office in December, Chancellor Olaf Scholz speaks out against stopping the project for political reasons. He describes the pipeline as a "private-sector project" that should be assessed independently of relations with Russia, which are becoming increasingly difficult.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine changes everything

February 22, 2022:Against the backdrop of Russian aggression toward Ukraine, Scholz orders that certification of Nord Stream 2 and thus the approval process be suspended.

February 24, 2022:Russia launches its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and critics of Nord Stream feel vindicated. Gas supplies via Nord Stream 1 continue, but due to the EU sanctions against Russia the volume received by member states is reduced.

July/August 2022: Russia shuts down Nord Stream 1, allegedly for maintenance reasons. Further delays continue to keep the gas from flowing, with Gazprom blaming a defective turbine. The gas supply is later resumed to a limited extent, but it is stopped fully at the end of August. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says it will only be restarted when the sanctions against Russia are lifted.

Who blew up Nord Stream?

September 26, 2022: Both Nord Stream 1 pipes and one of the two Nord Stream 2 pipes are damaged near the Danish island of Bornholm. Germany, Denmark and Sweden launch an investigation.

2023: Over time, various theories are voiced as to who could have been behind the attacks. US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh claims, without revealing his source, that the US and Norway blew up the gas pipelines.

August 2024: Polish public prosecutors say they have received a European arrest warrant from the office of Germany's federal prosecutor for a suspect allegedly involved in the attacks. According to the German news program Tagesschau, this happened in June.

A Ukrainian named Volodymyr Z., who according to Polish information was last seen in Poland, is said to have left for Ukraine "at the beginning of July."

The Polish public prosecutor's office says it was a formal error that led to the Polish authorities not acting earlier: There was apparently no entry, from the German side, in the Schengen system, which sends an alert when a person subject to a European arrest warrant is registered. Thus, the Polish border police were unable to arrest Volodymyr Z.

This article was originally written in German.