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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
At the end of September 2022, Nord Stream AG, the gas pipeline operator, reported destruction after powerful explosions simultaneously on three strings of the offshore Nord Stream-1 and Nord Stream-2 pipelines. The damage is unprecedented and “the recovery timeframe cannot be estimated yet.” Croatian authorities arrested a suspect in the explosions: it concerns Volodymyr Zhuravlov, whom a Polish court previously released and refused to extradite to Germany, German outlet Tagesschau reports. Germany accuses Zhuravlov of possibly being one of the divers who attached explosive devices to the pipelines in the Baltic Sea from a sailing vessel at a depth of approximately 80 meters. His lawyer, Mykola Katerynchuk, urged the Office of the Prosecutor General to request Zhuravlov’s extradition from Croatia. Croatian law enforcement acted on the basis of a European arrest warrant issued by the Federal Court of Justice in the German city of Karlsruhe on 5 June 2024, Katerynchuk told Suspilne. The Security Service of Ukraine, under the procedural supervision of the Office of the Prosecutor General, opened a criminal investigation into the sabotage of the Nord Stream-2 pipeline on 9 July. Recall that on 18 August 2025 the Federal Supreme Court of Germany issued an arrest warrant for Kuznetsov on suspicion of sabotage. Investigators believe the Ukrainian allegedly led a group of six people who mined the pipeline strings and then detonated them remotely. In Germany, Kuznetsov faces up to 15 years in prison. The Ukrainian denies any involvement in the sabotage. On 21 August, Italian police arrested Kuznetsov on suspicion of blowing up the Nord Stream pipeline. The court ruled he should be extradited to Germany. On 17 October 2025, a hearing took place in Warsaw. At its conclusion, the court decided to reject Germany’s extradition request for the Ukrainian and ordered his immediate release from custody. The European Union and NATO called the Baltic Sea explosions “a deliberate act” of sabotage, while Poland and Ukraine blamed Russia. In March 2023, Volodymyr Zelensky stated that Ukraine was not involved in the pipeline detonations. According to him, such information may be spread to slow down assistance to Ukraine.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "У Хорватії заарештували підозрюваного у справі про вибухи на трубопроводі «Північний потік»: що відомо". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: Facts.
