Warsaw won’t rush extradition of Ukrainian suspect in Nord Stream sabotage to Germany, Polish official says
Poland sees no need to rush the possible extradition of a Ukrainian citizen, suspected of involvement in the Nord Stream gas pipelines sabotage, Tomasz Siemoniak, the minister coordinator for Polish intelligence services, said in an interview with TVP.Info on Oct. 2.
The suspect, identified as Volodymyr Z., was detained in September in the town of Pruszkow in central-eastern Poland. He is wanted under a European arrest warrant issued by a German court in 2024.
The news comes as the German government continues its investigation into the 2022 sabotage of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 natural gas pipelines, linking Russia and Germany via the Baltic Sea.
Siemoniak called the case "extremely serious," saying it requires a thorough investigation.
He added that the decision on extradition must be made by a court, which has 100 days to rule whether to extradite the Ukrainian national, according to Onet.
In the meantime, Marcin Przydacz, Polish secretary of state and head of the International Policy Bureau, said that authorities should examine the legal grounds for extradition and consider the political consequences of such a decision. He added that the move may affect Poland-Ukraine relations.
"If it is indeed true that this person demonstrated far-reaching courage and determination to make Europe safer, then the goals of his actions, which speak in his favor, must certainly be taken into account," the official said.
German authorities claim to have uncovered direct evidence linking the Ukrainian suspect to the Nord Stream pipeline explosion.
The suspect is a diving instructor who allegedly sailed from the German city of Rostock to the Baltic Sea on a yacht in September 2022, then dived underwater and placed explosives on the underwater pipeline.
Several German media outlets reported that Volodymyr Z. had been living in Warsaw in recent months. In early June 2024, the German prosecutor’s office issued a European arrest warrant and sent it to Polish authorities. However, Polish officials did not detain him at the time.
In August, another Ukrainian national, Serhii Kuznietsov, was arrested in Italy on suspicion of involvement in the Nord Stream pipeline explosions. He is accused of being on board the yacht used during the sabotage operation.
According to German prosecutors, Kuznietsov coordinated the mission, and investigators are still searching for his accomplices. The suspect has denied the allegations, claiming that he was in Ukraine at the time of the incident.
The West and Kyiv have traded blame with Russia in the wake of the Nord Stream explosions.
Germany, Sweden, and Denmark launched independent investigations into the incident. The latter two countries concluded their probes in February 2024, finding that the pipelines had been blown up without identifying the culprit.
Asami Terajima
