Keep our news free from ads and paywalls by making a donation to support our work!
Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Poland has detained a Ukrainian man suspected of involvement in the 2022 explosions that damaged the Nord Stream pipelines, which previously brought gas from Russia to Germany. A Polish court will now consider a request to extradite him to Germany, where he is wanted on a European Arrest Warrant.
On Tuesday morning, the 46-year-old man, who can only be named as Volodymyr Z. under Polish privacy law, was detained by police in Pruszków, a town on the outskirts of Warsaw.
We wtorek w godzinach porannych na terenie Pruszkowa zatrzymano obywatela Ukrainy Wołodymyra Z., podejrzanego w sprawie wysadzenia Nord Stream – przekazał prokurator Antoni Skiba.https://t.co/Zlbrtyrykh
— tvn24 (@tvn24) September 30, 2025
A spokesman for Warsaw’s district prosecutor’s office, Piotr Skiba, revealed that Volodymyr Z. has permanent residence in Poland, where he lives with his family, and is a sole trader working in construction.
He also confirmed that Volodymyr Z. was the same man who the Polish authorities had attempted to detain last year at the request of Germany, but who had left the country for Ukraine shortly before the warrant was executed.
The man’s lawyer, Tymoteusz Paprocki, also confirmed his client’s detention and said that he had been “questioned and pleaded not guilty to the charges”. Volodymyr Z. “did nothing wrong, nothing to the detriment of Germany”, added Paprocki, quoted by news website Interia.
The lawyer also, however, argued that, even if a “Ukrainian citizen participated in these activities, it is difficult to believe that these actions could be considered a crime given the war in Ukraine and the fact that the owner of this infrastructure is a Russian company [Gazprom] that directly finances the war”.
On 26 September 2022, a series of explosions hit the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea, near the Danish island of Bornholm (though in international waters).
Three of the four pipelines were rendered inoperable as a result, though they had in any case not been transporting gas at the time as a consequence of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine earlier that year.
There have long been suspicions that Ukrainians were behind the incident. Last month, another Ukrainian man, Serhii K., was arrested in Italy on suspicion of involvement. He has also denied the charges.
Location of the Nord Stream explosions (source: FactsWithoutBias1/Wikimedia Commons, under CC BY-SA 4.0)
After Volodymyr Z.’s detention in Poland today, German prosecutors said that he “belonged to a group of individuals who placed explosive devices on the Nord Stream…gas pipelines”, reports the BBC. He is believed to be a diving instructor who was involved in planting the explosives on the pipes.
Skiba said today that, after Polish prosecutors receive the relevant documentation from their German counterparts, they will “prepare and possibly support a motion to extradite this man pursuant to the European Arrest Warrant”. A Polish court will then have up to 100 days to issue an extradition decision.
Skiba also noted that any decisions made by the Polish authorities are unrelated to whether or not they believe the suspect is guilty of the crimes he is accused of. The matter is simply a procedural one relating to potential extradition.
Paprocki made clear that Volodymyr Z. will contest any effort to extradite him. “My client has been residing in Poland for a long time because he has not committed any crime in the European Union,” he said, quoted by broadcaster RMF.
There is “no evidence” supporting the claim, recently published by the @WSJ, that “Poland was the logistical hub for the operation to blow up Nord Stream”, Polish prosecutors have announced, calling the revelations “entirely untrue” https://t.co/ugHVCvBSOQ
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) June 23, 2023
Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
Main image credit: Danish Defence handout
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
