The investigation into the sabotage of the Russian Nord Stream gas pipeline in 2022 in the Baltic Sea is moving towards a Ukrainian lead with the revelation of the issuance of an arrest warrant by the German courts against a professional diver suspected, according to several media outlets, of being involved with two other of his compatriots.
This new element in this mysterious affair which has lasted for almost two years was revealed on Wednesday by the German public television channel ARD and the prestigious newspapers. The Time And South German newspaper.
The Polish prosecutor’s office confirmed to AFP that it had received in June a European arrest warrant issued by the German federal prosecutor’s office against a Ukrainian living in Poland at the time, presented as Volodymyr Z. and a diving instructor.
The Polish authorities had 60 days to respond to the German request and arrest the suspect. However, he left Poland in early July to return to Ukraine, the Polish prosecutor’s office said, blaming the German authorities.
According to him, they did not register the suspect in the wanted persons register, which allowed him to leave.
On September 26, 2022, four huge gas leaks preceded by underwater explosions occurred within hours of each other on Nord Stream 1 and 2, pipelines connecting Russia to Germany and carrying most of Russia’s gas to Europe.
Berlin Determined
Asked by AFP, the German federal prosecutor’s office, responsible for one aspect of the investigation into this attack, did not wish to comment.
In Berlin, deputy government spokesman Wolfgang Büchner did not comment on this latest development, but suggested to the press that the German justice system was determined to continue investigations into the sabotage, whoever was behind it.
“The investigation is being conducted […] and no matter what the outcome is,” he said, adding that this does not change the fact that Russia is waging a war of aggression against Ukraine that is contrary to international law.
According to media reports, Volodymyr Z., who until recently lived near Warsaw, is suspected by German justice of having been involved, together with two other Ukrainian divers, presented as Jevhen U. and Svitlana U., in the sabotage of the gas pipeline in the depths of the Baltic Sea.
The trio is said to have transported the explosives to the scene on board a sailboat, the Andromeda, which the German prosecutor’s office revealed in 2023 that it had opened an investigation into. According to investigators, the sailboat set sail from Rostock in Germany on the Baltic Sea, then stopped off at a Danish island, before heading to Sweden and Poland.
German authorities are internally surprised by Poland’s lack of cooperation in this investigation, according to German media, which mention possible complicity from which the three Ukrainians could have benefited in this country.
Briefly reached by phone by German media, Volodymyr Z. denied any involvement. Svitlana U. also denied any involvement, telling RTL-Germany that she had been “in kyiv” at the time of the sabotage of the gas pipeline in September 2022.
She also confirmed Volodymyr Z.’s presence in Ukraine, saying she spoke to him on the phone on Wednesday. “From what I know, he is currently in Ukraine, in kyiv,” she said.
No evidence of kyiv involvement
While Sweden and Denmark had already stopped investigating the case earlier this year, German investigators continued their work.
According to German media, however, there is no evidence so far that the Ukrainian suspects acted on the orders of their country’s authorities, secret services or army.
kyiv denies any responsibility for this sabotage. “I would never do that,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the German daily in June 2023. Image.
In March 2023, the New York Times had already claimed, based on information consulted by American intelligence, that a “pro-Ukrainian group” had been behind the sabotage, but without the involvement of the head of state.