Italian authorities have arrested a Ukrainian national considered a key suspect in coordinating the Nord Stream pipeline attacks, with Germany’s prosecutor general announcing that he will be taken to Germany to be brought before a judge.

The suspect, identified as Sherhi K. under German data protection laws, was allegedly part of a group of people who had planted explosive devices in the Nord Stream pipelines near the island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea. According to a statement from the German prosecutor’s office, the arrested man was not acting alone, but was coordinating an organised sabotage operation.

Prosecutors describe the group as having departed from Rostock, in northeastern Germany, using a sailing boat to carry out the operation. The boat had been rented from a German company, using fake identity documents obtained through intermediaries.