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A Ukrainian national has been arrested in Croatia in connection with an alleged sabotage attack on the Nord Stream gas pipelines, German authorities said on Wednesday.
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The man, named as “Vladimir Z,” or Volodymyr using the Ukrainian form, was arrested in Pula in western Croatia on Wednesday morning by local police after a European arrest warrant was issued, Germany’s Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement.
According to the statement, the man, who prosecutors say is a qualified diver, “was part of a group of individuals associated with Serhii K. – who is being prosecuted separately – who, in September 2022, placed explosive devices on the ‘Nord Stream 1’ and ‘Nord Stream 2’ gas pipelines near the island of Bornholm.”
“The accused took part in the dives required for this purpose,” it added.
The group is said to have used a hired boat to sail from Rostock to the site of the explosions, which took place on 26 September 2022, around seven months after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The explosions caused severe damage to the system, which was built to deliver natural gas from Russia to Germany through the Baltic Sea, destroying three of the four underwater pipelines.
Prosecutors say the objective of the alleged attack was to “permanently disrupt gas supplies through the pipelines” and to stop Russia from using the revenue to finance its war effort in Ukraine.
Vladimir Z is now set to be extradited from Croatia before he is brought before a judge at the Federal Court of Justice in Germany. The Ukrainian had already been arrested in Poland in 2025, but authorities refused to extradite him and he was released.
Serhii K, named above, was charged over the Nord Stream incident by German prosecutors in June. He had been arrested by police in Italy in August 2025 and was extradited to Germany in November of that year.
In July, the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office said Serhii K had been an officer in the Ukrainian army and that he had led the group accused of the Nord Stream sabotage.
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