Polish authorities have detained a Ukrainian man suspected of involvement in the 2022 explosions that damaged the Nord Stream gas pipelines running under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany, prosecutors in Warsaw said on September 30.
The suspect has been identified as Volodymyr Z. He was detained in Pruzhkow, central Poland, on the basis of a European arrest warrant issued by Germany.
This follows the arrest of another Ukrainian, Serhii K, in Italy in August. An Italian court ruled on September 16 to extradite him to Germany, but he has appealed the decision.
Nord Stream, majority-owned by Russia’s state-controlled Gazprom and co-financed by major European energy companies, was constructed to deliver Russian gas directly to Germany, bypassing transit states such as Ukraine and Poland, which had strained relations with Moscow.
The suspected sabotage and subsequent gas leaks caused the pipelines to become inoperable and came seven months after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Western governments originally accused Russia of carrying out the blasts, while Moscow rejected the allegations and instead blamed the United States, Britain, and Ukraine.
Kyiv has denied involvement, but German media reports have described how a team of Ukrainians carried out the attack. According to numerous reports, Volodymyr Z was one of four divers involved in placing explosives on Nord Stream.
Volodymyr Z’s lawyer, Tymoteusz Paprocki, told journalists his client would fight extradition.
German prosecutors accuse Serhii K of coordinating the operation, in which a yacht was sailed from Germany’s Baltic Sea port of Rostock. The yacht, allegedly hired using false papers, sailed close to the Danish island of Bornholm, where three explosions ripped through the pipelines on September 26, 2022.
Serhii K’s lawyer, Nicola Canestrini, said “fundamental rights on due process, conditions of detention, and functional immunity have been violated,” in the case.
A ruling is expected by mid-October.
