Warrant issued for Ukrainian diving instructor over Nord Stream pipeline attacks

Germany’s Federal Public Prosecutor General has accused a Ukrainian diving instructor of using explosives to blow up the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea two years ago, German media reported on Wednesday.

The German authorities issued a European arrest warrant for a Ukrainian man who, in accordance with Germany’s strict privacy laws, was named only as Vladimir Z, over his suspected involvement in the major 2022 infrastructure attack.

The suspect’s identity was established by a joint investigation into the attack carried out by German newspapers Süddeutsche Zeitung and Die Zeit and German public broadcaster ARD,

though the German authorities stressed that Z did not act alone, and was aided by a number of unnamed accomplices including two other diving instructors.

Along with the other suspects in the case, Z is believed to have left Germany and was reportedly last seen in the Polish city of Pruszkow, a suburb of Warsaw.

The series of underwater explosions that took place in Swedish and Danish territorial waters on 26 September 2022 damaged the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipelines, and forced Russian energy giant Gazprom to immediately suspend gas deliveries to Europe through both pipelines.

The construction of Nord Stream 2, a €10 billion project, had been opposed by Ukraine, the US and several other European countries who feared that becoming so dependent on Russia for energy supplies would allow the Kremlin to hold Europe to ransome, fears that further soared following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Despite there being multiple theories about who was behind the attack, no suspects were ever named. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denied that Kyiv was responsible for the explosions, telling Germany’s Bild Newspaper, “Nothing of the sort has been done by Ukraine. I would never act that way.”