Croatia arrests suspect in Nord Stream sabotage

Croatian authorities have arrested Ukrainian citizen Vladimir Z. in Pula, based on a European arrest warrant issued by Germany, on charges of involvement in the sabotage of the North Stream gas pipeline. His extradition is expected to take place soon.

According to the German Federal Prosecutor's Office in Karlsruhe, the arrest was carried out by the Pula Police Department with the coordination of the Police Directorate in Zagreb.

The suspect is under serious suspicion that, together with other perpetrators, he caused the explosion of an explosive device on the North Stream gas pipeline and thereby committed unconstitutional sabotage and destruction of an infrastructure facility.

According to German media, he is a Ukrainian who was located in Poland by German authorities last year, but the Polish authorities refused to arrest him and extradite him to Germany, which led to diplomatic friction between Berlin and Warsaw.

Terrorist group diver

The German Federal Prosecutor's Office in Karlsruhe, which is responsible for acts directed against the constitutional order, states in the arrest warrant that Ukrainian Vladimir Z. is a trained diver and that he belonged to a group of people gathered around his compatriot Serhiy K., against whom separate proceedings are being conducted.

The group is accused of planting explosive devices on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines near the Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea in September 2022. The suspect participated in the diving operations required to plant the explosives.

For transportation, he and his accomplices used a sailboat that set sail from the German port of Rostock. The yacht had been previously rented from a German company through an intermediary, using forged personal documents.

The explosive devices were detonated on September 26, 2022 and caused heavy damage to both gas pipelines.

Continuation - in Germany

After being extradited from Croatia, the suspect should be brought before an investigating judge at the German Federal Supreme Court in Karlsruhe.

On June 30, 2026, the German Federal Public Prosecutor's Office filed an indictment against Serhije K., against whom separate proceedings are being conducted, before the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court in Hamburg.