Germany Sent Arrest Warrant for Nord Stream Explosions Suspect in June

Gas bubbles from the Nord Stream 2 leak reache the surface of the Baltic Sea near Bornholm, Denmark, on Sept. 27, 2022. (Danish Defence Command/Handout via Reuters)

An arrest warrant was issued by German authorities in June in connection with the 2022 Nord Stream pipelines explosions, according to the Polish National Public Prosecutor’s Office.

The Polish National Public Prosecutor’s Office has confirmed that German authorities sent a European Arrest Warrant for a man wanted in connection with Nord Stream pipelines explosions. However, he was able to evade arrest.

On Aug. 14, German newspapers SZ and Die Zeit alongside the ARD broadcaster, citing unnamed sources, reported that Germany issued a European Arrest Warrant for a Ukrainian diving instructor, named only as “Volodymyr Z.,” who was allegedly part of a team that blew up the Nord Stream gas pipelines.

German authorities told The Epoch Times by email that it “generally does not comment on media coverage and, as a matter of principle, [does] not comment on arrest warrants.”

Volodymyr Z.

A spokeswoman for the Polish National Public Prosecutor’s Office told The Epoch Times by email that in June this year, German authorities sent a European Arrest Warrant directly to the Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Warsaw in the case of Ukrainian citizen “Volodymyr Z.” in connection with proceedings conducted against him in Germany.

She said however that Volodymyr Z. was not detained because he wasn’t included in a database of wanted persons, which meant that the Polish Border Guard had no knowledge and no grounds to detain him.

This meant that at the beginning of July, he was able to leave Poland and cross the Polish-Ukrainian border.

“The free crossing of the Polish-Ukrainian border by the above-mentioned was possible because the Polish Border Guard did not have the knowledge and grounds to detain Volodymyr Z., the information about his search on the basis of the German EAW [European Arrest Warrant] was not in the database of persons wanted by the judicial authorities of other countries,” she said.

Polish law does not allow for publication of the full name of suspects in criminal investigations.

In Germany, the publication of the full names of suspects in criminal investigations is also generally not allowed.

September 2022

The multibillion-dollar Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines transporting gas under the Baltic Sea were ruptured by a series of blasts in the Swedish and Danish economic zones in September 2022, releasing vast amounts of methane into the air, seven months after the Russia–Ukraine conflict began.

The Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines, a subsidiary of the Russian state-controlled company Gazprom, had a joint annual capacity of 110 billion cubic meters—more than half of Russia’s normal gas exports volumes.

The first Nord Stream pipeline, which connected Russia and Germany directly under the Baltic Sea, became operational in 2011 and was a key component of Europe’s energy supply.

Nord Stream 2, built to run parallel to Nord Stream 1, was intended to double the capacity of gas delivered to Germany, but never came into operation amid global political tensions.

Germany has since significantly reduced its Russian natural gas imports and now has deals with Norway, Europe’s biggest gas producer.

Until now, almost two years on, it remained unclear to the public who was behind the explosions.

According to investigations conducted by Danish, German and Swedish authorities, leaks in the pipelines were caused by the use of explosives.

Ukraine country’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denied involvement in an interview with Politico, last year.

In a U.N. briefing from April, Larry C. Johnson, political commentator and expert in the field of counter‑terrorism, said that the destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines has inflicted significant economic pain on the people of Germany.

U.N. representatives of the Russian Federation have claimed that the destruction of the Nord Stream gas pipelines constituted “a direct threat to international peace and security.”

However, U.N. representatives from France say that Russia has “continued systematically to target Ukrainian infrastructure, inflicting terrible damage,” and that Russian Federation strikes have destroyed or damaged seven thermal power plants, three combined heat and power plants, two hydroelectric plants, and 17 power transformers.

The Epoch Times contacted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine for comment.

Reuters contributed to this report.