A man from Ukraine was apprehended in Croatia on Wednesday in connection to the underwater blasts that caused damage to the Nord Stream gas pipelines linking Russia and Germany in 2022, as per Germany’s federal prosecutor. The individual, identified as Vladimir Z., was taken into custody in Pula, Croatia, by local law enforcement executing a European warrant. Prosecutors stated that Vladimir Z., a certified scuba diver, was part of a group that planted explosives on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines near the Danish island of Bornholm in September 2022. He is suspected of involvement in causing explosions, anti-constitutional sabotage, and destruction of structures.
The arrest of Vladimir Z. was welcomed by the German government, with the justice ministry spokesperson Nicholas Limmer expressing satisfaction with the progress made by the federal prosecutor’s office in the investigations related to the pipeline bombings. German federal prosecutors had previously pressed charges against another individual, Serhii K., a former Ukrainian army officer, in connection to the same explosions. Serhii K. was detained in Italy in August 2025 and extradited to Germany in November, facing charges including causing an explosion, property damage, disrupting public services, and complicity in war crimes by targeting civilian objects.
Germany intends to seek the extradition of the suspect, despite Poland having blocked the extradition of an individual with the same name initials in the past. The spokesperson confirmed that the individual in question was indeed the same person identified by Polish authorities as Volodymyr Zhuravlov. Poland’s opposition to the Nord Stream pipelines, viewing them as a means for Russia to exert influence over Europe using energy resources, was emphasized during extradition proceedings involving Zhuravlov. Both the U.S. and Ukraine have denied any involvement in the undersea explosions that occurred on September 26, 2022, damaging the pipelines constructed to transport Russian natural gas to Germany through the Baltic Sea. Russia has accused the U.S. of orchestrating the explosions, a claim that Washington has refuted, while the Ukrainian government has also denied any role in the sabotage.
