A court in Pula has placed a Ukrainian diving suspect in pre-trial detention following his arrest on a European warrant linked to the 2022 Nord Stream pipeline sabotage, German federal prosecutors allege. Volodymyr Z. is accused of co-causing an explosives detonation and is believed to have been one of the divers who attached charges to the pipelines.
He was detained on Wednesday in the Croatian coastal city and, under Croatian law, the extradition process must be concluded within 60 days. Polish authorities had previously refused to extradite the suspect after an earlier arrest last autumn.
German investigators are pursuing a seven-member group suspected of sabotaging the pipelines in September 2022. Another suspect, Serhiy K., was arrested in Italy last year and extradited to Germany. Croatia, which ended all Russian gas imports in 2024, backed European Council conclusions condemning the attacks.