Germany issues arrest warrant for Ukrainian diver in Nord Stream bombing incident
Germany has issued a European arrest warrant for a Ukrainian diving instructor believed to have been part of a team that carried out the Nord Stream gas pipeline bombing, three German media outlets reported on Wednesday.
According to the Süddeutsche Zeitung and Die Zeit newspapers and the German public broadcaster ARD, citing unnamed sources, German investigators believe the man, whose last known place of residence was Poland, was one of the divers who planted explosive devices on pipelines running from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea in September 2022.
Meanwhile, the German prosecutor’s office declined to comment on the report, as the report stated that Germany had asked Poland last June to arrest the man, and also, there is no comment yet from the Polish prosecutor’s office.
The suspect is believed to have left Poland since then, Der Spiegel magazine reported on Wednesday, citing security sources.
Media reports said that another man and a woman, also Ukrainian diving instructors, were also suspected by German investigations of being involved in the sabotage, but authorities haven’t yet issued arrest warrants for them.
It’s unclear who was behind the explosions that destroyed three of the four pipelines that have become a controversial symbol of Germany’s dependence on Russian gas after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Russia and the West traded accusations of responsibility for the bombings, but both sides denied it and no party claimed responsibility.
