Croatian police detained the man Wednesday in the coastal city of Pula under a European arrest warrant issued by Germany's Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe. German federal prosecutors identified him only as Vladimir Z., but a Polish lawyer and news reports named him as Volodymyr Zhuravlov.
Prosecutors described him as a trained scuba diver accused of taking part in Baltic Sea missions that placed explosives on the pipelines, and he faces charges of causing an explosion, sabotage and destroying infrastructure.
Zhuravlov is expected to be sent to Germany to face trial, though the handover first requires sign-off from Croatian courts.
"Handing him over requires the consent of Croatian courts for extradition. We must wait for the outcome of such proceedings. I cannot offer any predictions as to the timing", said Ines Peterson, a spokeswoman for Germany's Federal Court of Justice.
The case has already moved through Polish courts once. Zhuravlov was detained in Poland in September 2025 under the same German warrant, but Warsaw's Regional Court ruled against extraditing him a month later, ordering his release. He has denied any role in the attack, saying he was in Ukraine when it happened.
His former Polish lawyer, Tymoteusz Paprocki, confirmed his identity to Polish Press Agency (PAP). "I can confirm that today my client in a trial in Poland was detained in Croatia. I don't know the reasons he went there, but I assume they must have been significant and important", Paprocki said.
Croatian authorities in Istria County said the arrest took place at a tourist facility in Pula and that they were still working to verify the man's identity. Croatia's justice ministry said it had not received formal notice of the case but noted that EU states handle extradition requests directly between judicial authorities, with the matter now before the Pula court.
Zhuravlov is the second suspect German prosecutors have tied to the September 2022 blasts, which destroyed three of the four Nord Stream 1 and 2 lines roughly 80 meters below the Baltic Sea surface — more than seven months after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In July, prosecutors indicted Serhii K., a former Ukrainian military officer accused of leading the sabotage team. He was arrested in Italy in August 2025, held a hunger strike in prison there, and was extradited to Germany in November. He, too, denies involvement and says he was in Ukraine at the time.
German investigators contend the goal was to permanently cut off gas flows to Europe and deny Russia revenue that could fund its war effort. Berlin has asserted jurisdiction over the case because the pipelines run to the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and their destruction threatened the country's energy security.
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Source: PAP, Reuters