Germany pursues Nord Stream saboteur

Germany issued an arrest warrant for a Ukrainian believed to belong to the team that blew up the Nord Stream gas pipelines in September 2022.

Identified by Politico Europa as Volodymyr Zhuravlev although referred to as Vladimir Z in the German media, the diving instructor was last located in Poland although his whereabouts are now unknown.

The German authorities intend to charge him with diving 80 metres to the seabed where, seven months after Russia invaded Ukraine, he planted explosives on the pipelines taking Russian gas to Germany.

Four important gas leaks were detected on the two Nord Stream pipelines off Denmark’s Bornholm Island, putting them out of commission.  Although they contained gas, they were not pumping at the time of the attack.

Denmark, Sweden and Germany all began investigating what increasingly looked like sabotage, but although both the former countries dropped their enquiries into the incident, Germany has not.

According to Suddeutsche Zeitung, Die Zeit and the ARD broadcaster, Germany first asked Poland to detain Volodymyr Zhuravlev in June, although he has since gone to ground.

“Ultimately, Volodymyr Z was not detained, as he left the territory of Poland at the beginning of July this year, crossing the Polish-Ukrainian border,” the Public Prosecution Office told the AFP news agency.

The Nord Stream operation was apparently backed by high-ranking Ukrainian military officials but president Volodymyr Zelensky stated that his country was not behind the attack.

“I would never act that way, “ Zelensky declared.

Russia and Ukraine’s allies have variously blamed each another for orchestrating the  damage to the pipelines although some Intelligence officials, including those from Germany, were not convinced that Ukraine was implicated.

“It could be a ‘false flag’ operation, intended to cover up Russia’s involvement,” they suggested to Politico Europe.