Back
Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
Ukrainian citizen Volodymyr Zhuravlyov, whom Germany suspects of blowing up both lines of the Nord Stream pipelines, has applied for political asylum in Croatia. His lawyer Mykola Katerynchuk reported this to 29 in September. The defender emphasized that filing the application does not automatically halt the man’s extradition process.
The asylum application is reported in an item by Suspilne, which obtained a comment from the Ukrainian’s lawyer. Zhuravlyov is suspected of involvement in the explosions on the Nord Stream-1 and Nord Stream-2 pipelines, which run along the floor of the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany and suffered a series of blasts in autumn 2022.
"Volodymyr Zhuravlyov submitted an application for political asylum in Croatia, arguing that he will not receive a fair trial in Germany," said lawyer Mykola Katerynchuk.
Among those the German authorities consider suspects in the case are Ukrainians Volodymyr Zhuravlyov and Serhiy Kuznetsov. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated back in 2023 that Kyiv was not involved in the pipeline sabotage. In 19 August, Croatian law enforcement arrested Zhuravlyov on suspicion of involvement in sabotage, although previously a Polish court had released him from custody and denied the German authorities’ extradition request.
Croatian court allowed the Ukrainian to be extradited to Germany
In September, a court in the Croatian city of Pula issued a decision permitting Zhuravlyov’s extradition to the Federal Republic of Germany. Katerynchuk called this decision "biased" and "political" and said the defense will appeal it. Filing the asylum application was another attempt to delay handing the Ukrainian over to the German side, although legally it does not guarantee suspension of the procedure.
The investigation into the pipeline sabotage has been ongoing for more than three years, and during that time investigators have repeatedly changed their approaches to the charges against the Ukrainian citizens. The German prosecution considers Zhuravlyov a professional diver involved in the sabotage, while the defense insists the persecution is political in nature.
Earlier, Informator reported that Germany had brought a new charge against Zhuravlyov in the Nord Stream case, updating the European arrest warrant and adding the qualification of a "war crime." Because of this, the extradition hearing, which was scheduled for 4 September, had to be postponed. We also reported that the evidence against the Ukrainians in this case may have been falsified by Russia, according to the German publication Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, which cast doubt on the involvement of the yacht Andromeda in the sabotage.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Підрив Північного потоку - підозрюваний Німеччиною українець Журавльов подав заяву на притулок у Хорватії". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: Informator.
