The German Prosecutor General’s Office has issued an arrest warrant for a Ukrainian diving instructor. The man is suspected of involvement in the explosion of the Nord Stream pipelines, reports Komersant ukrainskyi
with reference to the media Süddeutsche Zeitung.
The media outlet reported that the main person involved in the case was Ukrainian Volodymyr Z. According to the investigation, he and two accomplices, a man and a woman, could have attached explosives to the pipelines. All three were travelling across the Baltic Sea on the German yacht Andromeda in September 2022.
According to investigators, Vladimir Z. was one of the passengers in a white Citroën that was spotted near Rügen on the night of 8 September 2022. The car is believed to have been carrying the crew to the Andromeda yacht, which was transporting divers to the bombing sites. Vladimir S. was identified from photographs and witness statements, and this evidence was sufficient to issue an arrest warrant.
Vladimir’s last known place of residence was a town near Warsaw. Germany asked Poland to arrest the man and hand him over, but the Poles did not do so.
The German Prosecutor General’s Office refused to comment on media reports about the arrest warrant. The suspect himself had previously spoken to the press and denied any involvement in the sabotage.
Meanwhile, the spokesperson for the Polish Prosecutor General , Anna Adamyak, in a commented to Onet said that the suspect in the Nord Stream gas pipeline bombing in Germany had managed to leave Poland and return to Ukraine. She said that the German side had issued an arrest warrant for the suspect, but he was not detained by Polish border guards because his details were not entered into the database of wanted persons. The prosecutor’s office also confirmed the receipt of a European arrest warrant from Germany.
What happened to Nord Stream?
In the summer of 2022, the US CIA warned the German government of possible attacks on the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines.
on 26 September 2022, at 20:03 and 19:04 local time, seismological stations recorded underwater explosions. One of them occurred in the Danish maritime economic zone and the other in the Swedish maritime economic zone. The magnitude of one of the explosions was 2.3.
At 13:52 and 20:41, the maritime administration received the first reports of gas leaks. A total of 4 leaks were recorded: two on each of the pipelines.
It is known that the damaged gas pipelines are located at a depth of 70-90 metres. At the time of the explosions, they were not in operation and were filled with process gas. Nord Stream, the pipeline operator, said the damage was unprecedented.
Nord Stream explosions: expert opinions
A researcher at the Royal Danish Defence College , A. Nielsen, suggested that the pipeline was damaged by remote-controlled mines planted by divers.
American submarine expert H. Sutton believes that the explosions were caused by a Russian underwater unmanned vehicle.
From the very beginning, experts and government circles in Germany lobbied for a targeted attack. The assumption was that Russia was involved.
Attack on Nord Stream: what does Ukraine have to do with it?
In March 2023, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on camera stated on camera that Ukraine had nothing to do with the gas pipelines. According to him, such information could have been spread by provocateurs to slow down the logistical assistance to Ukraine from its allies.
In November of the same year, The Washington Post published an article a story in which it said that the gas pipeline explosion was coordinated by Ukrainian officer Roman Chervinsky, who is accused in Ukraine of involvement in the shelling of the Kanatove airfield and abuse of power.