Unlock Editor’s Digest for free
FT editor Rula Khalaf picks his favourite articles from this weekly newsletter.
According to German media reports, the German prosecutor general has issued an arrest warrant for a Ukrainian national accused of blowing up the Nord Stream gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea about two years ago.
German public broadcaster ARD and newspapers Süddeutsche Zeitung and Die Zeit reported that the perpetrator of the attack was a Ukrainian national living in Poland who is currently in hiding.
Swedish newspaper Expressen, part of the media team that reported on the incident, named the suspect as 44-year-old Volodymyr Zhuravlov, who is accused of “violating the constitution and causing an explosion.”
A spokesman for the German prosecutor’s office declined to comment.
If confirmed, it would be the first major breakthrough in the long-running investigation into the explosion that destroyed the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines on September 26, 2022.
An explosion near the Danish Baltic Sea island of Bornholm caused four leaks in a pipeline, and investigators have been wondering who is responsible for one of the most dramatic sabotages in recent European history.
NS1 has long been the main route for Russian natural gas to Germany. NS2 was completed but not yet operational at the time of the explosion, as political tensions between Berlin and Moscow were rising following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The two pipelines have long been a source of friction between Berlin and its Eastern European neighbors, who argue that if they were to pass through, Russia would be able to bypass countries like Poland and supply gas directly to Europe, the region’s largest economic and manufacturing powerhouse, thereby increasing its control over the European energy market.
At the time of the explosion, Moscow had already cut off most of its gas supplies to Germany.
ARD said the alleged attackers used the German sailboat Andromeda, which they chartered in September 2022 and used to sail into the Baltic Sea. In July 2023, investigators found traces of explosives on the boat, which they believe was used to transport the alleged attackers.
The broadcaster said investigators had identified two other Ukrainian citizens, one of whom was a woman, as potential suspects. They believed the pair, both trained divers, had attached explosives to the pipeline.
The broadcaster also reported that police and prosecutors have so far found no evidence that the Ukrainian military or intelligence services were involved in the attack. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has always denied that his government was involved.
Sweden and Denmark dropped their investigations into the blast in early 2024, but German prosecutors continued their investigation.
According to media reports, German investigators managed to gather enough evidence to obtain an arrest warrant for Zurablov from a German federal court judge in early June.
They approached Polish authorities with a European arrest warrant. ARD said it was unclear why Poland had not taken action. Polish authorities said they had not responded to Germany’s request so far.
ARD and the newspaper reported that investigators believed Zurablov had been living in a village west of Warsaw but had recently gone into hiding. It was unclear whether he had now returned to Ukraine.
