German federal prosecutors said on Wednesday that a second Ukrainian suspect in the 2022 Nord Stream pipeline sabotage has been arrested in Croatia.
The man, identified only as Vladimir Z. in accordance with German privacy rules, was detained in the coastal city of Pula by Croatian police acting on a European arrest warrant issued in June 2024.
Prosecutors described him as a trained scuba diver who formed part of a group that planted explosives on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines near the Danish island of Bornholm in September 2022.
According to the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office, the group departed from Rostock on a sailing yacht that had been rented through intermediaries using falsified identity documents.
Vladimir Z. is strongly suspected of jointly causing explosions, anti-constitutional sabotage and the destruction of buildings and structures.
Germany is seeking his extradition so that he can be brought before an investigating judge at the Federal Court of Justice.
He is understood to be the same individual who was arrested in Poland in 2025.
A Polish court refused Germany’s extradition request at the time, arguing that any such act would have been carried out in the context of a defensive war, and he was released.
The first suspect in the case, former Ukrainian army officer Serhii K. (also referred to as Serhiy Kuznetsov), was arrested in Italy in 2025, extradited to Germany and charged in July 2026 with orchestrating the operation.
Prosecutors have alleged that the group acted on behalf of Ukrainian state entities. Both men deny involvement.
The explosions on September 26 2022 severely damaged the pipelines, which had been a major route for Russian gas supplies to Germany and other European countries.
Nord Stream 1 was operational at the time; Nord Stream 2 had not yet entered service.
The blasts occurred months after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and have remained a source of diplomatic tension between Berlin and Kyiv.
The sabotage triggered one of the largest recorded releases of methane into the atmosphere, creating a major environmental incident in the Baltic Sea as vast quantities of natural gas escaped from the ruptured pipes over several days.
A Polish court’s decision to free a Ukrainian man wanted by Germany for blowing up the Nord Stream pipelines has been criticised by Hungarian foreign minister Peter Szijjártó. https://t.co/81UWUiWEIu
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) October 20, 2025
