Four years after one of the most dramatic acts of sabotage in modern European history, a Ukrainian man goes on trial in Hamburg on Wednesday accused of blowing up Russia's Nord Stream gas pipelines to Germany.
Extradited to Germany last year, Serhii K will become the first suspect to go on trial for the blasts. German prosecutors accuse him of plotting with other Ukrainian military personnel to destroy the pipelines and stop Russia financing its war with gas revenue.
The case is highly sensitive in Germany, which is seen as one of Ukraine's closest allies since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, seven months before the attacks took place.
Explosives destroyed three of the four gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea off the island of Bornholm on 26 September 2022. In the months after the attacks, Western suspicion looked towards Moscow without directly apportioning blame.