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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.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk says that it is not in the interest of his country, or of justice, to extradite to Germany a Ukrainian man recently detained in Poland on a European Arrest Warrant for his alleged involvement in the 2022 explosions that damaged the Russian Nord Stream gas pipelines.
“The problem with North [sic] Stream is not that it was blown up. The problem is that it was built,” declared Tusk, whose country has long been opposed to the pipelines.
The problem with North Stream 2 is not that it was blown up. The problem is that it was built.
— Donald Tusk (@donaldtusk) October 7, 2025
Last week, a Ukrainian resident of Poland, who can be named only as Volodymyr Z. under Polish privacy law, was detained under a warrant issued by Germany, where prosecutors accuse him of involvement in criminal sabotage of the pipelines.
On Monday this week, a Polish court ordered that the man be placed in detention for 40 days while it considers the question of whether to extradite him to Germany.
However, many in Poland have argued that, even if Volodymyr Z. was involved in the attack on Nord Stream, he should be praised for his actions rather than punished. On Tuesday, Tusk expressed similar sentiment.
“It is certainly not in Poland’s interest, or in the interest of a simple sense of decency and justice, to charge or extradite this citizen to another country,” said Tusk, quoted by the Polish Press Agency (PAP). “The decision will be up to the court, but our [the Polish government’s] position here is clear.”
“From our point of view, the only people who should be ashamed and should remain silent regarding Nord Stream 2 are those who decided to build Nord Stream 2,” added Tusk.
“Russia, with the money of some European countries, German and Dutch companies, built Nord Stream 2 against the most vital interests not only of our countries, but of all of Europe,” added the Polish prime minister.
Meanwhile, the head of President Karol Nawrocki’s National Security Bureau, Sławomir Cenckiewicz, told Polsat News on Tuesday that he believes Volodymyr Z. “should not have been detained at all” and “the Polish state should refuse to cooperate in this matter”.
“Poland should not contribute to any operation to extradite a person who has harmed Russia,” he continued. “We need to find a formula in which we will remain within the law, and at the same time we will not hand over to the Germans – or potentially Russians – someone who has harmed the Russian war machine.”
– Moim zdaniem ten człowiek nie powinien zostać w ogóle zatrzymany. Państwo polskie powinno odmówić współpracy w tej sprawie – @Cenckiewicz o sprawie Volodymyra Z.#GośćWydarzeń @BogRymanowski https://t.co/I2It4dOYLq
— PolsatNews.pl (@PolsatNewsPL) October 7, 2025
Warsaw’s district court can spend up to 100 days deciding on whether to comply with the European Arrest Warrant and extradite Volodymyr Z. On Monday, a court spokeswoman said that a date for a first hearing will soon be announced.
Yesterday, Ukraine’s ambassador to Poland, Vasyl Bodnar, confirmed that his country is providing consular assistance to Volodymyr Z. but “is not interfering” in the case.
“Everything depends on the justice system, the rule of law,” he told broadcaster RMF. “A court is a court and must make the appropriate decision…The Ukrainian side is behaving decently here, in accordance with Polish law.”
A Polish court has ordered that Volodymyr Z., a Ukrainian suspected of involvement in blowing up the Nord Stream gas pipelines in 2022, be held in detention for 40 days while extradition to Germany under a European Arrest Warrant is considered https://t.co/ykAI1695EP
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) October 6, 2025
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. In August, another Ukrainian man, Serhii K., was arrested in Italy on suspicion of involvement. He has also denied the charges.
Poland has detained a Ukrainian man accused by Germany of involvement in the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines, which brought gas from Russia to Germany.
A court will now decide whether the man, a resident of Poland, should be extradited to Germany https://t.co/pPG4KpiBfK
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) September 30, 2025
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: KPRM/Flickr (under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
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.
