Ukrainian detained in Poland over 2022 Nord Stream gas pipeline explosions

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WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Polish authorities arrested a Ukrainian diver who is suspected of involvement in undersea explosions that damaged the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea between Russia and Germany three years ago, Polish and German prosecutors said Tuesday.

Volodymyr Z. was detained in Pruszkow, central Poland, Piotr Antoni Skiba, a spokesperson for the Warsaw District Prosecutor’s Office, told a press conference.

The suspect, whose full name wasn't released due to privacy rules, was detained on a European arrest warrant issued by German authorities.

Polish police had tried to arrest the man last year, Skiba said, but he had managed to leave for Ukraine, according to Polish radio station RMF FM.

The 46-year old was a resident of Poland, where he lived with his family, and owned a business in the country, Skiba said.

The man was “strongly suspected” of criminal offenses linked to detonation of explosives, sabotage and destruction of structures, the German Federal Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement.

It said the “trained diver” was part of a group that took a sailing yacht, rented with forged documents, from the coastal German city of Rostock to near the island of Bornholm, where they carried out dives to place the explosives that were detonated on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines.

“The explosions severely damaged both pipelines,” the prosecutor’s statement said.

Skiba said Polish prosecutors are considering requesting the temporary arrest of the man for seven days, during which they would prepare a request for his extradition.

Another Ukrainian man was arrested in Italy last month in connection with the explosions on the undersea pipelines that were built to carry Russian natural gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea.

Tymoteusz Paprocki, a lawyer for Volodymyr Z., said the defense would fight extradition.

“Taking into consideration the full-scale war in Ukraine and the fact that Nord Stream is owned by the Russian company Gazprom, which finances these activities, the defense currently does not see any possibility of pressing charges against anyone who participated in these events,” Paprocki told RMF FM.

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.