By Bruce Beaubouef, Managing Editor
German authorities have issued an international arrest warrant for a Ukrainian man suspected of carrying out the explosions that damaged the Nord Stream gas pipeline two years ago, according to reports from CNN and multiple other online sources.
The explosions led to significant vents of natural gas from the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, which in turn prompted an international operation to find who was responsible.
A spokeswoman for Poland’s Public Prosecutors Office, Anna Adamiak, confirmed that Poland had received a warrant from Germany seeking the arrest of a Ukrainian man, named as Volodymyr Z. The man was subsequently identified as Volodymyr Zhuravlov according to the Swedish newspaper Expressen. Adamiak added that the man had left Poland and was not arrested because he was not on a database of wanted people.
The news comes after three German outlets reported that Zhuravlov – described as a diving professional – along with two other Ukrainian suspects, are believed by German federal prosecutors to have launched the underwater attack on the pipelines from a sailing boat in September 2022.
After a joint investigation, German outlets ARD, Die Zeit, and Süddeutsche Zeitung reported on August 14 that an arrest warrant for Zhuravlov had been sent to Poland’s government for approval back in June. Germany’s Federal Public Prosecutor General did not comment on the reports when contacted, according to CNN. Die Zeit reported that the man denied involvement when contacted by that outlet. Zhuravlov, however, was able to escape arrest, German media reported.
Denmark and Sweden also opened probes into the explosions, but those investigations were suspended without naming a suspect.
The German prosecutor’s investigation into the explosions also points to two other Ukrainian nationals — a couple who run a diving school in Ukraine where Zhuravlov worked as a diving instructor. According to the investigation, the three expert divers were in the Baltic Sea in September 2022 aboard a German sailing yacht called Andromeda.
The origin of the explosions has been a subject of intense speculation and further stoked political tensions in Europe in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Neither of the pipelines were actively transporting gas to Europe at the time of the leaks, though they still held gas under pressure.
