A man from Ukraine was taken into custody on Wednesday in Croatia in connection with the undersea blasts that compromised the Nord Stream gas pipelines linking Russia and Germany back in 2022, according to a statement from Germany’s federal prosecutor.
Identified as Vladimir Z., adhering to German privacy regulations that restrict the disclosure of full names, the Ukrainian individual was apprehended in the city of Pula by Croatian authorities acting upon a European arrest warrant.
On September 26, 2022, these underwater detonations severely damaged pipelines designed to transport Russian natural gas to Germany beneath the Baltic Sea.
This incident exacerbated existing tensions surrounding the conflict in Ukraine, as European nations sought to reduce their dependence on Russian energy in response to the Kremlin’s comprehensive invasion of Ukraine.