A Ukrainian man, identified as Vladimir Z., was arrested Wednesday in Pula, Croatia, by local police executing a European arrest warrant. German prosecutors are now seeking the suspect's extradition to Germany.
The man, a trained scuba diver, is strongly suspected of jointly causing the undersea explosions that damaged the Nord Stream gas pipelines between Russia and Germany in September 2022. The blasts damaged three of the four pipelines built to carry Russian fossil gas under the Baltic Sea.
Prosecutors say the objective of the attack was to permanently disrupt gas supplies and stop Russia from using the revenue to finance its war effort in Ukraine. The explosions occurred months after the Kremlin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, as European countries moved to wean themselves off Russian energy sources.
This arrest marks the second suspect accused of taking part in the 2022 pipeline blasts. Vladimir Z. was arrested a year after another suspect, an ex-army officer, was held and transferred to Germany.