Poland arrests Ukrainian suspect in Nord Stream sabotage
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
A 2022 photo showing gas bubbling up through the sea as a result of damage to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which carried Russian gas to Europe.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Follow topic:
- A Ukrainian man, Volodymyr Z, was arrested in Poland on a German warrant concerning the 2022 Nord Stream 2 bombing.
- The German warrant alleges Volodymyr Z's involvement with a Ukrainian cell of six people who sabotaged the Russian gas pipeline.
- The defence will argue no Ukrainian should be criminally responsible due to Russia's war with Ukraine and the pipeline's funding of Moscow.
AI generated
WARSAW – Poland has arrested a Ukrainian man targeted by a German warrant for his alleged involvement in the 2022 bombing of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, prosecutors and his lawyer said on Sept 30.
Lawyer Tymoteusz Paprocki confirmed the arrest of his Ukrainian client, but did not identify him by name.
“In the morning hours, my client was detained in one of the towns near Warsaw as a result of a European arrest warrant, which was issued by the German side and pertains to matters related to Nord Stream 2,” he told broadcaster TVN24.
Polish media reports named the suspect as Volodymyr Z, not giving his complete last name.
“I confirm that he has been arrested. Procedures are under way,” Warsaw regional prosecutor’s office spokesman Piotr Skiba told AFP, without identifying the suspect.
Mr Paprocki said that given that Russia is at war with Ukraine and the pipeline could be said to finance Moscow’s war effort, the defence would argue no Ukrainian should be held criminally responsible for destroying it.
Earlier in September, an Italian court ordered that another Ukrainian – 49-year-old Serhii Kuznietsov – arrested over the sabotage
The pipelines, which for years had shipped Russian gas under the Baltic Sea to Europe, were damaged by huge blasts just months after Russia’s February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
While some in the West were quick to accuse Russia of carrying out the attack, German investigators now believe they have identified a Ukrainian cell of five men and one woman as the perpetrators.
When he was arrested, German prosecutors said Kuznietsov had used forged identity documents to charter a yacht, which departed from the German city of Rostock to carry out the attacks. AFP
