A photo taken September 2022 from a Danish F-16 shows the Nord Stream 2 gas leak just south of Dueodde, Denmark. It was one of three attack sites on the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea, with the other two on Nord Stream 1 northeast of Bornholm. On Tuesday, a suspect called “Volodymr Z” was arrested by Polish authorities. File Photo by Danish Defense | License Photo
A Ukrainian man suspected of involvement in the 2022 explosion of Europe’s Nord Stream pipeline in the Baltic Sea has been arrested by Polish police.
The unidentified Ukrainian national and trained diver with the alias “Volodymyr Z” was arrested early Tuesday morning near Warsaw, according to German authorities.
“He is currently being investigated for the execution of a European Arrest Warrant,” Piotr Antoni Skiba, a spokesman for the Polish prosecutor in Warsaw, told the BBC.
On Tuesday, a legal representative for the Ukrainian diver confirmed the arrest to a Polish news outlet.
German officials issued its arrest warrant last year in August for Volodymyr Z as Germany now seeks his extradition.
“In the early hours, my client was detained in a town near Warsaw as a result of a European arrest warrant, which was issued by Germany and pertains to matters related to Nord Stream 2,” stated Tymoteusz Paprocki, the unnamed suspect’s attorney.
Three of the four Nord Stream gas pipelines to Germany via Russia were hit by planted explosive devices only months after Russia’s full-scale invasion and war in Ukraine.
Last month, Italian authorities in Rimini picked up a separate Ukrainian man known as “Serhii K” in connection to the Nord Stream attack in an ongoing case in front of Italy’s court system.
But no evidence has linked any nation to the blasts in the looming mystery surrounding the order of the Nord Stream attack with Ukraine accusing Moscow and Russia pointing fingers at Ukraine, Britain and the United States. Initially, Russia was given blame.
Paprocki added that he will argue that no Ukrainian citizen could be criminally responsible since gas pipeline profits were being diverted to finance Russia’s widening war in eastern Europe.
German prosecutors said Tuesday the suspect in Polish custody allegedly belonged to “a group of individuals who placed explosive devices on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines” that detonated nearly three years ago to the day.
In a statement, Polish police said he “participated in the dives required for this” and was suspected of “jointly causing an explosion with explosives” that officials said caused “anti-constitutional sabotage” and “destruction of buildings.”
According to German officials, seven suspects part of a private diving school in Kyiv were connected to the Nord Stream pipeline explosion and have since been identified. However, one has since died.
Three separate probes into the blast were opened by Germany, Sweden and Denmark. Last year in February, the Danish and Swedish investigations were closed out with no conclusion.
