Nearly four years after explosions ripped through the Nord Stream pipelines at the bottom of the Baltic Sea, a second suspect is now in custody. Volodymyr Zhuravlyov, a Ukrainian national and trained scuba diver, was detained in the Croatian coastal city of Pula under a European arrest warrant.
The arrest, carried out on August 19, brings Germany one step closer to prosecuting what ranks among the most audacious acts of infrastructure sabotage in modern European history. A Croatian court has ordered Zhuravlyov held in pre-trial detention while extradition proceedings to Germany move forward.
What happened to Nord Stream
On September 26, 2022, a series of underwater detonations tore through three of the four Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines near the Danish island of Bornholm. The pipelines had served as a critical artery for Russian natural gas flowing to Germany, and by extension, much of Western Europe.
Multiple nations launched investigations. Sweden eventually dropped its probe, and Denmark closed its own inquiry without filing charges. Germany pressed ahead, and its federal prosecutors have spent years assembling a case centered on a small group of Ukrainian operatives allegedly responsible for the sabotage.
