Croatia detains another Nord Stream suspect at Germany's request

Police in the Croatian city of Pula have detained a Ukrainian citizen named Volodymyr Z. under a European Arrest Warrant, Germany's Federal Prosecutor's Office has announced.

According to German investigators, the detained man is a trained diver who descended to depths of around 80 metres to plant explosives on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines near the Danish island of Bornholm in September 2022. Prosecutors say he was part of a group linked to a man identified only as Serhiy K. and "took part in the dives required to carry out the operation."

German authorities had already tried to detain the same Ukrainian in the autumn of 2025 — he was arrested in Poland at the time, but a Polish court rejected Germany's extradition request, and he was released.

How the pipelines were destroyed

Explosions ripped through the pipelines on 26 September 2022, when pre-planted explosive devices detonated and destroyed three of the four Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 lines. The pipelines had been built to supply Russian gas to Europe: before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, more than half of the Russian gas reaching the German market flowed through Nord Stream 1. The second line, Nord Stream 2, had not yet been put into operation at the time of the blast, though its pipes were already filled with gas.

During the investigation, experts from Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office and Federal Police found traces of a military-grade explosive mixture — RDX and HMX — on a yacht called Andromeda. Investigators have gradually identified seven suspects, one of whom is reported to have since been killed at the front.

A trail leading to Ukrainian intelligence

Germany's Federal Prosecutor's Office says the sabotage was likely carried out "in the interest of a foreign state" as part of an intelligence operation — according to the investigation, this may point to intelligence services in Kyiv.

Investigators name former Ukrainian intelligence officer Roman Chervinsky as the suspected organiser of the attack; he denies any involvement. According to sources familiar with the matter, the sensitive operation was approved by Ukraine's then commander-in-chief, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, who also denies everything. It remains unclear whether Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was informed of the plans for the operation.

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Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz