A Ukrainian nationwide has been arrested by police in Poland on suspicion of involvement in a sequence of explosions that blew up the Nord Stream fuel pipelines underneath the Baltic Sea.
The person, recognized as a educated diver referred to as Volodymyr Z, was detained underneath a European arrest warrant within the early hours of Tuesday in a city close to Warsaw, German prosecutors stated.
A number of months into Russia’s full-scale invasion, three of the 4 Nord Stream fuel pipelines from Russia to Germany had been ruptured by explosives.
Thriller has lengthy surrounded the blasts and no-one admitted ordering the assault. Ukraine denied involvement; Russia got here underneath Western suspicion and Moscow blamed the US and UK.
The explosions reduce off a key supply of pure fuel for Europe when leaders had been dealing with an power disaster triggered by Russia’s conflict, though Moscow had suspended provides by way of the Nord Stream 1 pipelines, and Nord Stream 2 by no means began operation.
German prosecutors investigating the assault issued their first arrest warrant in August 2024, naming the person as Volodymyr Z. Reviews on the time stated he was a diving teacher dwelling in Pruszkow, south-east of Warsaw, however authorities had been unable to seek out him.
Nonetheless he was not the primary suspect to be detained within the case. One other Ukrainian nationwide referred to as Serhii Ok was picked up by Italian authorities within the province of Rimini final month.
In an announcement on Tuesday, German prosecutors stated the suspect held by Polish police “belonged to a bunch of people who positioned explosive gadgets on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 fuel pipelines” which detonated on 26 September 2022.
He had “participated within the dives required for this”, they stated, including that he was strongly suspected “of collectively inflicting an explosion with explosives… anti-constitutional sabotage… and destruction of buildings”.
A spokesman for the Warsaw district prosecutor’s workplace, Piotr Antoni Skiba, advised the BBC that proceedings had begun towards a suspect from Pruszkow named as Volodymr Z.
“He’s presently being investigated for the execution of a European Arrest Warrant,” the prosecutor stated.
The person’s lawyer stated he had been detained within the early hours of Tuesday and stated his extradition to Germany could be challenged because the conflict in Ukraine made the warrant inadmissible.
“The assault on Nord Stream infrastructure issues one of many pipeline’s house owners, Gazprom, which immediately funds the army operations in Ukraine,” Tymoteusz Paprocki advised Reuters.
In the meantime, the case towards Serhii Ok is presently going by way of the courts in Italy.
Accused of enjoying a co-ordinating function within the Nord Stream blasts, his extradition to Germany was cleared by a court docket in Bologna after which his lawyer appealed towards the choice to Italy’s highest court docket of attraction.
Prosecutors imagine the suspects had been a part of a workforce that sailed a yacht referred to as Andromeda from the German port of Rostock out into the Baltic close to the Danish island of Bornholm. The yacht had beforehand been rented from a German firm with the assistance of solid identification paperwork through intermediaries, they stated.
Like Volodymyr Z, Serhii Ok is”strongly suspected of collectively inflicting an explosion and of sabotage undermining the structure”.
German stories say seven suspects have been recognized in reference to the Nord Stream blasts, though one has since died. Among the many group had been former members of a non-public diving faculty in Kyiv.
Germany, Denmark, and Sweden all opened investigations into the incident however the Swedish and Danish investigations closed in February with out figuring out any suspect.
There is no such thing as a proof thus far linking Ukraine, Russia or every other state to the assaults.
