German federal prosecutors announced on Wednesday that a Ukrainian national had been arrested in Croatia in connection with the 2022 sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines. The suspect, identified as Volodymyr Z., was taken into custody in the coastal city of Pula following a European arrest warrant issued by German authorities.
According to a statement from the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office in Karlsruhe, Volodymyr Z. is a trained diver who belonged to a group linked to Serhii K., a man already facing charges in Germany over the same incident. The group is accused of placing explosive devices on both the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines near the Danish island of Bornholm in September 2022.
Prosecutors allege that Volodymyr Z. participated in the dives required to attach the explosives. The operation is said to have been launched from the German port of Rostock, with the group sailing a chartered vessel to the blast site. The explosions, which occurred on 26 September 2022, severely damaged the pipeline system, destroying three of the four underwater lines that were built to transport natural gas from Russia to Germany via the Baltic Sea.
Motives behind the attack
German investigators have stated that the aim of the alleged attack was to "permanently disrupt gas supplies through the pipelines" and to deprive Russia of revenue that could be used to finance its war effort in Ukraine. The sabotage took place roughly seven months after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a conflict that has reshaped European energy security and prompted a continent-wide push to reduce dependence on Russian gas.
Volodymyr Z. is now expected to be extradited from Croatia to Germany, where he will be brought before a judge at the Federal Court of Justice. This is not his first arrest: he was detained in Poland in 2025, but Polish authorities declined to extradite him, and he was subsequently released.
The case against Serhii K., who is described as the alleged mastermind of the operation, was formally filed by German prosecutors in June. He had been arrested in Italy in August 2025 and extradited to Germany in November of that year.
The Nord Stream investigation has been one of the most sensitive and complex in Europe since the war began. The pipelines were a symbol of German-Russian energy interdependence, and their destruction has had lasting geopolitical and economic consequences. The incident has also strained relations between Berlin and Kyiv, as Ukraine has denied any official involvement in the sabotage.
This latest arrest comes amid a broader pattern of security incidents linked to the conflict in Ukraine. In a separate case, a German court recently convicted a Ukrainian man for spying in connection with a Russian sabotage plot. Meanwhile, Polish authorities have said they foiled a Russian plot to kill a Ukrainian-American in Warsaw, underscoring the heightened security environment across the continent.
The arrest in Croatia also highlights the ongoing efforts by European judicial authorities to hold those responsible for the Nord Stream attack accountable. The investigation has involved multiple countries, including Denmark, Sweden, and Germany, though the latter has taken the lead in prosecuting the case.
For now, Volodymyr Z. remains in custody in Croatia pending extradition proceedings. German prosecutors have not yet indicated when he might appear before the Federal Court of Justice, but the case is expected to proceed swiftly given the seriousness of the charges.
