Ukrainian Diver Detained Over Nord Stream Pipeline Blasts (Worthy News Investigation)
by Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Europe Bureau Chief
BERLIN/ZAGREB/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – A Ukrainian man was detained Wednesday in Croatia over the 2022 undersea explosions that damaged the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines between Russia and Germany, authorities said, a development that raised questions over Ukraine’s role in the attack against key infrastructure of European allies.
German prosecutors said local police in Pula, Croatia, arrested Vladimir Z., whose last name was not given under German privacy rules, on a European arrest warrant.
“Vladimir Z. is a trained scuba diver who was part of a group of individuals who planted explosives on the ‘Nord Stream 1’ and ‘Nord Stream 2’ gas pipelines near the (Danish) island of Bornholm in September 2022,” prosecutors said.
The Ukrainian national is “strongly suspected of jointly causing explosions, anti-constitutional sabotage, and destruction of buildings and structures,” they added in a statement.
The arrest marks another significant development in Germany’s investigation into one of the most consequential acts of sabotage against European energy infrastructure since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
NORD STREAM SABOTAGE PROBE
Undersea explosions on September 26, 2022, ruptured three of the four Nord Stream pipeline strings near Bornholm in the Baltic Sea, causing massive gas leaks and rendering the affected lines unusable.
German investigators allege Vladimir Z. belonged to the same group as Serhii K., a former Ukrainian military officer who prosecutors say coordinated the operation aboard the sailing yacht Andromeda.
Serhii K. was detained in Italy in August 2025 while staying with his family near the Adriatic coast and was extradited to Germany in November after challenging his transfer.
German federal prosecutors formally charged him in July with offenses connected to the explosions. He has denied involvement, and his lawyers have argued that he was serving in Ukraine’s armed forces at the time.
Investigators allege the sabotage team used the Andromeda, which had been chartered from a German company using forged identification documents and intermediaries before departing from the German Baltic port of Rostock.
YACHT LINKED TO BLASTS
German media have reported that investigators found DNA and fingerprint traces as well as microscopic traces of explosives aboard the yacht.
The latest suspect is expected to be extradited from Croatia and brought before an investigating judge at Germany’s Federal Court of Justice.
Nord Stream 1 had for years been a major route for transporting Russian natural gas directly to Germany beneath the Baltic Sea.
But Russian state-controlled energy giant Gazprom halted flows through Nord Stream 1 on September 2, 2022, citing technical problems related to Western sanctions imposed over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
European governments accused Moscow of weaponizing energy supplies.
RUSSIAN GAS ROUTE
Nord Stream 2 had been completed but never entered commercial operation after Germany suspended its certification shortly before Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Three weeks after Gazprom stopped Nord Stream 1 deliveries, explosions struck both pipeline systems.
The blasts released huge quantities of methane into the atmosphere and initially triggered competing accusations over who was responsible.
Russia accused the United States and Britain of involvement, allegations both countries rejected. Washington had long opposed Nord Stream 2, arguing that the pipeline would make Europe dangerously dependent on Russian energy.
In early 2023, veteran American investigative journalist Seymour Hersh alleged, citing an unidentified source, that U.S. President Joe Biden had ordered the operation and that American personnel carried it out with Norwegian assistance.
US DENIES INVOLVEMENT
The White House, CIA and State Department strongly denied the allegation, which was not independently corroborated.
Attention subsequently shifted toward a possible Ukrainian-linked operation as German investigators traced the Andromeda and its alleged crew.
Ukraine has repeatedly denied government involvement in the sabotage.
The arrests therefore do not establish that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government ordered or knew about the operation, and German prosecutors have not publicly alleged that Kyiv’s political leadership authorized the attack.
Yet the investigation has potentially sensitive implications for Ukraine and its Western allies, according to a Worthy News assessment.
QUESTIONS OVER UKRAINE ROLE
If German courts ultimately establish that Ukrainian military personnel or operatives deliberately destroyed infrastructure serving Germany and other European states, the case could complicate relations between Kyiv and governments that have provided Ukraine with billions of dollars in military, financial and humanitarian assistance.
At the same time, determining whether those involved acted independently, as part of a military operation, or under orders from senior Ukrainian officials would be crucial in assessing the broader political consequences.
The case has also highlighted the vulnerability of Europe’s underwater pipelines, electricity cables and communications infrastructure at a time of heightened tensions between Russia and the West.
For years, allegations surrounding the Nord Stream explosions fueled competing Russian, Ukrainian and Western narratives about responsibility.
The detention of a second Ukrainian suspect now gives German prosecutors another opportunity to establish in court who carried out the explosions — and, potentially, who ordered one of Europe’s most politically sensitive acts of wartime sabotage.
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