A Ukrainian citizen has been detained in Poland over his alleged involvement in the 2022 Nord Stream explosions.
Identified only as Volodymyr Z, the suspect was held after a German court issued a European arrest warrant, according to Polish radio station RMF FM.
His Polish lawyer confirmed Volodymyr, a diving instructor, was being detained on Tuesday. There was no immediate comment from Polish or German prosecutors.
Tymoteusz Paprocki, the detainee's lawyer, told RMF that there were still no grounds to extradite his client to Germany.
“In general, considering the full-scale war in Ukraine and the fact that Nord Stream is owned by the Russian company Gazprom, which finances these activities, the defence currently does not see any possibility of bringing charges against anyone who participated in these activities,” he said.
The September 2022 explosions largely destroyed the pipelines to Europe, squeezing energy supplies on the continent, and forcing countries to use alternatives. Nobody has taken responsibility for the suspected sabotage and Ukraine has denied any role.
Denmark and Sweden concluded the explosions were an act of sabotage, but closed their investigations last February without identifying any suspects.
Italian police then arrested a different Ukrainian man in August 2025, German prosecutors said at the time. He was also suspected of coordinating attacks on the pipelines.
Prosecutors identified the suspect only as Serhii K, and said he was part of a group of people who planted devices on the pipelines near the Danish island of Bornholm.
They allege that he and his accomplices departed from Rostock, in Germany, in a sailing yacht to carry out the attacks in the Baltic Sea.
Serhii faced charges of collusion to cause an explosion, anti-constitutional sabotage and destruction of important structures.
The 21 August arrest in San Clemente was the first significant breakthrough in the investigation into the September 2022 explosions.
Russia’s state-controlled Gazprom, which built the pipelines, said that about 800 million cubic metres of gas had escaped, equivalent to around three months of Danish gas supplies.
Nord Stream 1 and 2 were built to deliver some 110 billion cubic metres of gas across the Baltic to Germany every year.
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