BERLIN (AP) — A Ukrainian man was arrested Wednesday in Croatia in relation to undersea explosions that damaged the Nord Stream gas pipelines between Russia and Germany in 2022, Germany’s federal prosecutor said.
Ukrainian national Vladimir Z., whose last name was not given in line with German privacy rules, was arrested in Pula, in Croatia, by local police carrying out a European arrest warrant.
“Vladimir Z. is a trained scuba diver who was part of a group of individuals who planted explosives on the ‘Nord Stream 1’ and ‘Nord Stream 2’ gas pipelines near the (Danish) island of Bornholm in September 2022,” prosecutors said.
He was “strongly suspected of jointly causing explosions, anti-constitutional sabotage, and destruction of buildings and structures,” they added.
Undersea explosions on Sept. 26, 2022, damaged pipelines that were built to carry Russian natural gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea. The damage added to tensions over the war in Ukraine as European countries moved to wean themselves off Russian energy sources, following the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Prosecutors have said the aim of the plot was to permanently disrupt gas deliveries via the pipelines and prevent Russia from using the revenues from natural gas trading to finance its military operations.
The statement said the suspect should be brought before the investigating judge at Germany’s federal court of justice upon his extradition from Croatia.
Last month, German federal prosecutors filed charges against a former Ukrainian army officer also in connection with the undersea explosions that damaged the same Nord Stream gas pipelines.
The suspect, identified only as Serhii K., faces charges of causing an explosion, damaging property, disrupting public service and being an “accomplice to war crimes” by attacking civilian objects.
