A suspect in the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines has been arrested in Croatia, according to a report by German broadcaster ARD. The man is believed to have been one of the divers who planted explosives on the underwater pipeline in the Baltic Sea.
ARD did not name the suspect but said he was the same man who was arrested in Poland in 2025 in the same case. Germany sought his extradition at the time, but a Polish court refused the request. Investigators have now located the man in Croatia, and Germany will seek his extradition, ARD said.
Polish media previously identified the suspect as Volodymyr Zhuravlov, a Ukrainian citizen. After he was detained at Germany’s request, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said it was not in Poland’s national interest to extradite Zhuravlov. Tusk said the problem with Nord Stream 2 was not that it was blown up, but that it had been built with money from European countries and had played a key role in Europe’s dependence on Russian energy.
The Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 pipelines were damaged by explosions in September 2022, when three of the four lines in the pipeline network were hit.
As part of the investigation launched in Germany, another Ukrainian citizen — Serhiy Kuznetsov, the alleged leader of the group that carried out the explosions — was also arrested. His trial is set to begin in Hamburg in the coming weeks. Kuznetsov was detained in Italy and extradited to Germany in November 2025.
