A Ukrainian diving instructor suspected of involvement in the sabotage of Baltic Sea gas pipelines two years ago is reported to have escaped from Poland to Ukraine, after a European arrest warrant issued by German investigators failed to be shared with border guards.
Two other Ukrainian instructors, a married couple, have also been cited by German police as persons of interest.
The Germans say they want to question the man who left Poland, named only as Volodymyr Z under reporting restrictions, because they believe he was part of a team that laid explosives on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines.
The explosions occurred at a technical diving depth of 70-80m on 26 September, 2022 – seven months after the start of Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine that February.
According to German press, Volodymyr Z had been living in Poland but, possibly alerted to the arrest warrant when it was issued in June, left overland for Ukraine in early July. The diver’s name had not been entered in the database of wanted persons used by Polish border guards.
Blame game
Several explosions were registered near the Danish island of Bornholm, with four gas leaks subsequently reported over the next four days. These put the pipelines out of action, disrupting Russian natural gas exports via Germany to the European Union and cutting the lucrative revenues of state supplier Gazprom.
The pipeline had been opened in 2012, though the newer Nord Stream 2 never came into full operation. Russia blamed the USA, Britain and Ukraine for the incident, while the West blamed Russia. A Russian salvage ship with mini-submarine had been observed near the site four days before the explosions were recorded.
According to German press reports, the other Ukrainian divers deny any involvement with the explosions, and as yet no arrest warrants have been issued for them.
Investigations inconclusive
President Volodymyr Zelensky has always denied that Ukraine was behind the sabotage, and it is recognised that it was not necessarily a state-sanctioned action. Denmark and Sweden’s separate investigations confirmed that the pipelines had been deliberately damaged but otherwise proved inconclusive.
In July 2023 German police are reported to have examined a 15m sailing yacht on suspicion that it had been used to transport explosives. The previous September the boat had visited various Baltic islands including Bornholm and Germany’s largest island Rügen from the German port of Rostock.
The man identified as Volodymyr Z was said to have been recorded by roadside cameras speeding on Rügen in a Ukrainian-registered car on 8 September, 2022.