The Federal Prosecutor's Office of Germany announced the detention in Croatia of a second suspect involved in the explosions on the Baltic gas pipelines "Nord Stream" and "Nord Stream 2." In a press release issued on Wednesday, August 19, the agency identified him as a citizen of Ukraine named Vladimir Z. According to the prosecutor's office, he was detained in the city of Pula by local police officers in coordination with the General Police Directorate in Zagreb based on a European arrest warrant issued on June 3, 2024. "After being transferred from Croatia, the accused will appear before an investigative judge of the Federal Court," the statement said. ## Prosecutor's Office: The Detainee Secured Explosive Devices on the Pipelines The detainee is suspected of having "acted as part of a group of individuals who carried out an explosion using explosives," as well as committing an act of sabotage against the constitutional order and destruction of structures. He is a professional diver and was part of a group operating under the direction of the first suspect, Sergey K., who installed explosive devices on underwater pipelines near the island of Bornholm in September 2022, the German prosecutor's office stated. "The accused participated in the diving work necessary to carry out this operation. For transportation, he and his accomplices used a sailing yacht that had departed from the port of Rostock. This yacht had previously been chartered from a German company through intermediaries using forged identity documents," the Karlsruhe office further indicated. ## Media: It Concerns a Ukrainian Whom Poland Previously Refused to Extradite to Germany According to the German television channel ARD and several other media outlets, this concerns the Ukrainian citizen Vladimir Zh., a suspect previously discovered by German investigators in Poland; however, Polish judicial authorities refused to extradite him to Germany. Three of the four strands of the "Nord Stream" and "Nord Stream 2" pipelines in the Baltic Sea, leading from Russia to Germany, were blown up in late September 2022. The Federal Prosecutor's Office of Germany reminds that on June 30, it charged Ukrainian Sergey K. with an attack on civilian energy infrastructure. According to the investigation, he led a group of saboteurs. Separate legal proceedings are underway against him, the statement notes.
