the arrest warrant which relaunches the investigation – L’Express

This is yet another twist in the mysterious case of the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines. On Wednesday, August 14, three German media outlets revealed that the investigation into the 2022 explosion of Russian gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea is leaning toward a Ukrainian lead. According to the public television channel ARD and the daily newspapers The Time And South German newspaperthe German justice system has issued an arrest warrant for a Ukrainian diver, suspected of being involved with two other of his compatriots.

While Sweden and Denmark had stopped their own investigations at the beginning of the year, this element relaunches the investigation into this sabotage, against a backdrop of suspicions of complicity between Poland and this Ukrainian trio.

A trio of divers on a German sailboat

The case begins on September 26, 2022. Seven months after Russia began its invasion of Ukraine, Russia’s Nord Stream 1 and 2 undersea gas pipelines, which connect Russia to Germany and carry most of Russia’s gas to Europe, explode within hours of each other at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. Four huge gas leaks then surface, and the investigation begins.

According to the German justice system, the main suspect, targeted by the arrest warrant revealed this Wednesday, would be a Ukrainian diving instructor living in Poland. A man designated by the German media under the name of Volodymyr Z. in order to preserve his anonymity. The man is suspected by Berlin of having been involved, along with two other Ukrainian divers, Jevhen U. and Svitlana U.

The trio is said to have transported explosives to the site on board a sailboat, the AndromedaThe discovery of traces of explosives on this boat had already been revealed a year earlier: the German newspaper South German newspaper had then traced the route of this sailboatdeparting from Rostock in Germany on the Baltic Sea, before stopping at the Danish island of Christiansø, near the sites of the explosions. According to the German investigation, the suspects then dived to the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines, located at a depth of around 70 to 80 metres, to place the explosive charges there. The crew then sailed to Sweden and then Poland, before returning to Rostock at night to return theAndromedawithout even getting their deposit back.

Poles and Germans blame each other

Despite identifying this Ukrainian diver as the main suspect, the German justice system failed to obtain his arrest. On Wednesday, August 14, the Polish prosecutor’s office confirmed to AFP that it had received a European arrest warrant issued by the German federal prosecutor’s office in June against Volodymyr Z., who was living near Warsaw at the time. Under the rules of European mutual legal assistance, the Polish authorities had 60 days to respond to the German request and arrest the suspect.

However, the latter has since left Poland in early July to return to Ukraine, the Polish justice system indicated. According to the office of the general prosecutor, the German authorities are responsible for this escape: they did not register the suspect in the register of wanted persons, which allowed the person concerned to leave, a spokesperson for the Polish prosecutor’s office told AFP. Briefly contacted by telephone by various German media, Volodymyr Z. and Svitlana U. denied any involvement in the attack. According to the German daily newspaper The world who contacted Svitlana U. on Wednesday, the latter also intends to defend herself legally against the claims of these media.

The German Federal Prosecutor’s Office declined to comment. However, deputy government spokesman Wolfgang Büchner reiterated on Wednesday the German state’s determination to conduct the investigation “without distinction of persons and regardless of the outcome.” reports the newspaper The TimeHowever, internally, the authorities across the Rhine are surprised by the lack of cooperation from Poland in this investigation, according to German media.

kyiv’s responsibility remains unclear

Thus, the German authorities are talking about possible complicity that the Ukrainian trio could have benefited from in this country. A statement that echoes the first hypotheses formulated after the sabotage. In 2022, attention had quickly turned to Ukraine and its allies, while the Nord Stream gas pipelines symbolized Europe’s dependence on Russian gas and Russia, despite its invasion of Ukraine.

More recently, an investigation The Radio France investigative unit had revealed in March that the former chief of the Ukrainian general staff Valery Zaluzhny, who had become the Ukrainian ambassador to London, was suspected of being involved in the explosion. However, the three German media outlets specified on Wednesday that there is no evidence at this stage that the Ukrainian trio acted on the orders of their country’s authorities: neither for a secret service nor for the army.

An analysis that is in line with the first leads published in March 2023 in the New York Times, who then referred to a “pro-Ukrainian group” while dismissing the involvement of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, according to information consulted by American intelligence. “I would never do that,” the Ukrainian head of state responded three months later, in an interview with the German daily Image. Questioned by The Time Regarding the Ukrainian nationality of the suspects, deputy government spokesman Wolfgang Büchner added that this did not change the fact that Russia was waging a war of aggression in Ukraine that violated international law.