A Ukrainian man was arrested Wednesday in Croatia on suspicion of taking part in the bombing of the Nord Stream gas pipelines between Russia and Germany in 2022, German prosecutors said.
The Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office said the suspect, Volodymyr Zhuravlyov, a trained scuba diver, was arrested in Pula, Croatia, and was “strongly suspected of jointly causing explosions”.
The man, who was only partially identified in the statement but who has been previously named after an earlier arrest in Poland, was detained on a European arrest warrant and Germany was seeking his extradition.
Croatian police confirmed an arrest but said they were still working to confirm the identity of the detainee.
“The Istrian (regional) police arrested an individual this morning at a tourist facility in the Pula area”, a coastal city in northwestern Croatia, police stated in a written response to AFP.
“Checks are underway to confirm whether this is indeed the person subject to a European arrest warrant issued by the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe.”
The Baltic Sea attack came months after Moscow’s February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine and destroyed three of four seafloor pipelines of the major energy link.
German investigators believe the attack was ordered by a Ukrainian state agency with the aim of depriving Russia of future energy revenues to finance its war in Ukraine.
Prosecutors charged Wednesday that Zhuravlyov worked closely with Sergiy Kuznetsov, another Ukrainian man who was arrested in Italy last year before being extradited to Germany.
Both men were part of a team that used a rented yacht for the underwater sabotage operation near the Danish island of Bornholm, prosecutors alleged.
Zhuravlyov has previously been arrested in Poland on the same charges, but authorities there refused to extradite him and let him go, judging that any such Ukrainian attack would have been a legitimate act of war rather than a criminal act.
The case is awkward for Germany and Ukraine, as Berlin has strongly backed Kyiv in its fight against Russia.
German government officials, when asked about the issue, have pointed to the independence of the judiciary.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said his government knew nothing about any plan to blow up the pipelines.
Add Comment