View taken in Sept. 2022 from a Danish F-16 interceptor of the Nord Stream 2 gas leak just south of Dueodde, Denmark. In June, German prosecutors issued an arrest warrant in Poland for an unidentified Ukranian male diving instructor known in Germany as “Volodymyr Z," confirmed Wednesday by Polish officials. File Photo by Danish Defence/UPI |
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Aug. 14 (UPI) -- An arrest warrant has been issued for a Ukrainian man suspected of allegedly blowing up Europe's Nord Stream pipeline located in the Baltic Sea in a mysterious 2022 explosion, according to multiple sources.
German prosecutors recently issued an arrest warrant for an unidentified male diving instructor from Ukraine, known in Germany as the so-called "Volodymyr Z," which was confirmed on Wednesday by authorities in Poland where the man had allegedly been living in the area of Pruszków, a town near Warsaw, the BBC, The New York Times and Politico reported.
The Nord Stream pipeline consisted of two parallel networks designed to carry Russian natural gas through the Baltic Sea in northern Europe to Germany when on Sept. 26, 2022 three separate explosions rocked the Swedish Nord Stream 1 and 2 natural gas pipelines which up until recently has remained an international mystery.
Germany's prosecutor general's office declined to confirm the arrest warrant's existence, telling BBC that by doing so it would jeopardize the investigation. However, a spokeswoman for Poland's prosecutor general did confirm the existence of a European arrest warrant that was issued in June by German officials for a suspect who at the time had been living near the Polish capital.
A separate Ukrainian man and woman are also suspected of involvement. According to reports, in early June Polish police went to Volodymyr Z's home outside of Warsaw. But officials determined he fled Poland back to Ukraine.
The New York Times confirmed that German prosecutors did issue a warrant for a Ukrainian diver believed to be on the team who also had been living in Poland before possibly escaping for getting apprehended.
No state or group has ever claimed responsibility for the mysterious blasts that destroyed three of the four strands of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines. Ukraine and Poland blamed Russia for the explosions, but the Kremlin denied any involvement while falsely claiming that Britain attacked the pipeline.
Previously, German investigators found evidence that a yacht was used to deliver a payload of explosives to the Baltic Sea, but from there the trail went cold, leading to global speculation about who was most likely responsible.
Yet even before the outbreak of Russia's war in Ukraine, the network was the target of Western scorn because it was emblematic of Russian grip on the European energy sector. Conspiracy theories around the explosion pointed to the U.S., Ukrainian or Russian governments as speculation swirled that undercover military groups from Russia or Ukraine were responsible.
An investigation by three German news outlets found that "Volodymyr Z" had been part of an experienced team of divers, who in September the year the incident took place, did hire a German yacht before sailing to the Baltic Sea and allegedly laid the explosives.
At one point there were parallel investigations in Germany and neighboring Denmark.
In February, Sweden discontinued its investigation into the pipeline explosion. And along with Denmark, the two north European nations classified the incident as a deliberate act of sabotage after the Swedish investigation turned up traces of explosives at one of the blast sites.
Media reports in the United States and Germany and have also suggested the involvement of a pro-Ukrainian group, but in an interview last June, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv had nothing to do with the blasts.
