He was able to leave the country because Germany had not included his name in a wanted persons database, prosecutors added.

The multi-billion-dollar Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines that carry gas under the Baltic Sea were destroyed by a series of explosions in September 2022, seven months after Russia launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine.

German investigators assume that the Ukrainian diver Volodymyr Z. was part of the team that placed the explosives, reported the newspapers “SZ” and “Die Zeit” as well as the ARD, citing anonymous sources.

The spokeswoman for the Polish Attorney General’s Office, Anna Adamiak, said that the German authorities had sent a European arrest warrant against Wolodymyr Z. to the District Prosecutor’s Office in Warsaw in June in connection with proceedings against him in Germany.

“Ultimately, Volodymyr Z. was not arrested because he left Polish territory and crossed the Polish-Ukrainian border in early July,” she wrote in an emailed statement in response to Reuters questions. “The free crossing of the Polish-Ukrainian border by the above-mentioned individual was possible because the German authorities … did not have him in the database of wanted persons, which meant that the Polish border guards had no knowledge and no reason to arrest Volodymyr Z..”

Under Polish law, the publication of the full names of suspects in criminal investigations is not permitted.

Germany stated that its relations with Ukraine were not strained by the Nord Stream investigation.

“The proceedings have no impact on what the Federal Chancellor (Olaf Scholz) has described as supporting the defense of Ukraine against Russia’s war of aggression, which violates international law, for as long as this is necessary,” the spokesman added.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry did not initially respond to a request for comment. The German Federal Prosecutor’s Office did not want to comment on the media reports.

In the course of the German investigations into the acts of sabotage, a married couple, a man and a woman – also Ukrainian diving instructors – were identified, but according to SZ, Zeit and ARD, there is currently no arrest warrant against them.

The woman told broadcaster Welt on Wednesday, August 14, 2024, that neither she nor her husband were involved and that she was in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv at the time of the pipeline attack.

The explosions destroyed three of the four Nord Stream pipelines, which had become a controversial symbol of Germany’s dependence on Russian gas after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Russia blamed the United States, Britain and Ukraine for the explosions, which have largely cut off the lucrative European market from Russian gas. But those countries denied any involvement.

Germany, Denmark and Sweden launched investigations into the incident and the Swedes found traces of explosives on several items recovered from the explosion site, confirming that the explosions were deliberate.

The Swedish and Danish investigations were closed this February without a suspect being identified.

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Read the article online at: https://www.worldpipelines.com/business-news/15082024/germany-issues-arrest-warrant-for-nord-stream-gas-pipeline-attacks/