Ukrainian diver with alleged links to Nord Stream attack detained in Poland

The diver, identified as Volodymyr Z, held for 2022 explosions that largely severed Russian gas supplies to Europe.

A Ukrainian diver suspected of being involved in causing undersea explosions that damaged the Nord Stream gas pipelines between Russia and Germany in 2022 has been detained in Poland.

The diver, identified as Volodymyr Z under Germany’s privacy laws, was detained on Tuesday near the Polish capital, Warsaw, local radio station RMF FM and his lawyer said.

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The lawyer, Tymoteusz Paprocki, said he would challenge his client’s transfer to Germany, where investigators had launched a case into the attack, which was described by both Moscow and the West as an act of sabotage.

The explosions largely severed Russian gas supplies to Europe, marking a major escalation in the Ukraine conflict and squeezing energy supplies on the continent.

Since the blast, no country has taken responsibility, and Ukraine has denied any involvement. But Russia blamed the United States, Britain and Ukraine for the attack. In 2023, German investigators concluded that a pro-Ukrainian group was behind the sabotage.

[Al Jazeera]

The diver’s detention followed a European arrest warrant issued by German authorities.

Paprocki argued that a European arrest warrant against him was inadmissible due to the Ukraine war. “The attack on Nord Stream infrastructure concerns one of the pipeline’s owners, Gazprom, which directly finances the military operations in Ukraine,” he said.

German news outlets – including the Sueddeutsche Zeitung and Die Zeit newspapers and the broadcaster ARD – quoted unnamed sources in reporting that investigators believe Volodymyr Z was part of a team that planted the explosives.

In August, Italian police arrested a Ukrainian man, identified only as Serhii K, for allegedly coordinating the attacks. Earlier in September, Italy’s lower court ordered his transfer to Germany.

However, Serhii K’s defence team said it would appeal his case to the Supreme Court of Cassation, Italy’s highest court, to prevent his extradition.

“Fundamental rights – fair trial, detention conditions, functional immunity – cannot be sacrificed in the name of automatic judicial cooperation,” it said in a statement.

But German prosecutors accuse Serhii K and his accomplices of setting off from Rostock on Germany’s northeastern coast in a yacht to carry out the attack on the pipelines.

He currently faces charges of collusion to cause an explosion, anticonstitutional sabotage and destruction of essential structures.