Poland explains why Ukrainian suspected of blowing up Nord Stream has not been arrested

Adam Bodnar, Polish Minister of Justice and Public Prosecutor General, has said that Poland could not execute a European arrest warrant for a Ukrainian citizen suspected of sabotaging the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines because he was not on Polish territory.

At the end of August 2024, the German newspaper Der Spiegel reported that a Ukrainian citizen suspected of sabotage on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines had fled Poland in a Ukrainian diplomatic car and had previously passed through Germany without hindrance.

Berlin is convinced that the Warsaw authorities have warned the fugitive, German media report.

"The German government is… furious with Warsaw," one weekly writes, adding that people connected with German security services say they "will not forget this." 

A German court issued an arrest warrant for the Ukrainian in the first week of June, and he was immediately entered into the German database of wanted persons. On 21 June, Germany sent a European arrest warrant to Poland, but the planned detention in Poland did not take place.

The Minister of Justice was asked on Radio Zet whether it was true that Poland had refused to hand over a Ukrainian diver suspected of blowing up the Nord Stream gas pipeline to Germany.

Bodnar replied that "the whereabouts of this person on the territory of the Republic have not been established".

"Measures were taken by German services, but these measures could not be implemented because this gentleman was not on Polish territory," Bodnar said.

On Thursday, 15 August, The Wall Street Journal reported that Ukrainian officials had been involved in the blowing up of Nord Stream. In particular, it was claimed that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy approved the operation to blow up the pipeline and then tried unsuccessfully to cancel it after intervention from the CIA. The operation reportedly took place under the supervision of Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.