Poland Nabs Ukrainian Diver Tied to Nord Stream Blasts, Extradition Fight Looms

Polish authorities have detained a Ukrainian man identified as Volodymyr Z on a German warrant over the 2022 explosions that crippled the Nord Stream gas pipelines under the Baltic Sea. He was picked up near Warsaw in the early hours Tuesday, his lawyer said, and now faces extradition to Germany — unless his defense team can stop it.

Warsaw prosecutors confirmed proceedings tied to a European Arrest Warrant are underway. Germany’s federal court of justice says investigators believe the suspect helped place explosives on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 lines during dives off the Danish island of Bornholm, using a sailing yacht rented out of Rostock with forged IDs — widely reported as the Andromeda. German media have long pointed to a small pro-Ukrainian team as the alleged saboteurs.

The suspect’s lawyer, Tymoteusz Paprocki, plans to challenge the transfer, arguing the warrant is inadmissible in the context of Russia’s full-scale war. His reasoning: the pipelines’ Russian owner Gazprom bankrolls the invasion, so a Ukrainian should not be criminally liable for attacking infrastructure tied to an aggressor’s war economy. He also framed broader concerns about fair-trial rights and conditions in cross-border cases.

This isn’t the first arrest linked to the blasts. In August, Italian police detained another Ukrainian, Serhii K, accused of coordinating the operation; an Italian court has cleared his extradition to Germany, though his lawyers are appealing to the country’s top court. German outlets say investigators have identified up to seven suspects — some reportedly with links to a Kyiv diving school — with one now deceased.

The undersea explosions on September 26, 2022 ruptured three of the four pipelines built to carry Russian gas to Germany, deepening Europe’s energy crunch seven months into Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. No state has claimed responsibility; Kyiv has flatly denied involvement, while Moscow has variously blamed Ukraine, the US, and the UK. Sweden and Denmark closed their probes earlier this year without naming suspects; Germany’s investigation continues.

Russia, for its part, says the pipelines can be repaired, though Berlin has ruled out bringing Nord Stream 2 into service. The Kremlin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov this week pressed Germany to finish its inquiry — while again pointing the finger at Kyiv.

For now, Volodymyr Z’s case moves to a Polish courtroom, where judges will weigh Germany’s evidence against his defense’s wartime arguments. If extradited, he could face charges including collusion to cause an explosion, anticonstitutional sabotage, and destruction of critical infrastructure — bringing one of Europe’s most shadowy acts of sabotage a step closer to a trial.

Al Jazeera, BBC, Reuters, and the Guardian contributed to this report.