Ukrainian Diver Held Over Nord Stream Blast

“A Ukrainian diver wanted on suspicion of participating in the sabotage of the Nord Stream natural-gas pipeline system was detained in Poland on a German arrest warrant, said German and Ukrainian authorities and his lawyer.

 

The man, identified only as Volodymyr Zh., was detained at his family home near Warsaw, police said. He is an experienced deep-sea diver who has been wanted by Germany for more than a year on suspicion of laying mines on the $20 billion undersea pipeline that connected Russia with Germany under the Baltic Sea.

 

The world's largest offshore pipeline system was blown up in September 2022 by a team of civilian divers and soldiers working for the Ukrainian military, according to German police investigators and research by The Wall Street Journal. The strike, executed by a crew of seven suspects using a small rental yacht, severed longstanding energy ties between Moscow and Western Europe, and left prices permanently high in Germany, the Continent's industrial powerhouse.

 

The pipelines, built with the support of Berlin and Moscow, were a source of repeated controversy within the trans-Atlantic alliance, with opponents including President Trump arguing they left Germany and Europe dependent on Russian energy.

 

After a nearly three-year manhunt triggered by one of the biggest acts of sabotage in modern history, two suspects have been arrested in just over a month on German warrants.

 

A senior Ukrainian government official acknowledged that Kyiv was informed about the arrest and is following the legal proceedings.

 

Volodymyr Zh. has lived in Poland since before the war, German authorities said. Last year, German police issued an international warrant for his arrest. German authorities accused Polish officials of failing to act on it and, instead, spiriting the diver away.

 

The case triggered tensions between the two governments.

 

"He belonged to a group of people that placed explosives on the gas pipelines Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2," Germany's Federal Public Prosecutor General said on Tuesday. The pipeline system consisted of two pipelines that ran along a nearly identical route along 750 miles on the Baltic seabed.” [1]

 

1. World News: Ukrainian Diver Held Over Nord Stream Blast. Pancevski, Bojan.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 01 Oct 2025: A6.