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Second Ukrainian Suspect Arrested in Croatia Over Nord Stream Pipeline Blasts

evening · · thread: Second Ukrainian Suspect Arrested in Croatia Over Nord Stream Pipeline Blasts

11 sources across 8 countries

Who reported this

  • The Guardian United Kingdom · Centre-left · Scott Trust Limited
  • BBC News United Kingdom · Centre · Public · Licence fee, royal charter
  • Reuters United Kingdom · Centre · Thomson Reuters Corporation
  • Sueddeutsche Zeitung Germany · Centre-left · Sudwestdeutsche Medien Holding
  • Deutsche Welle Germany · Centre · Public · German federal public-law corporation
  • UOL Brazil · Centre-left · Grupo Folha
  • France 24 France · Centre · Public · France Medias Monde (French state holding)
  • Telex Hungary · Centre · Reader-funded, staff-owned
  • Meduza Latvia · Centre-left · Crowdfunded; exiled Russian newsroom
  • Neue Zuercher Zeitung Switzerland · Centre-right · Dispersed shareholders, no controlling stake
  • Kyiv Independent Ukraine · Centre · Reader-funded, journalist-owned

What the colours mean

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  • Centre-left
  • Centre
  • Centre-right
  • Right
  • A hatched block means the outlet is affiliated with, or controlled by, a state.

Political lean describes where an outlet sits within the politics of its own country. It is never a position on a single global scale.

Political lean is comparable inside one country and not across them, which is why the bar groups by country first. Publicly funded broadcasters are not marked as state-linked.

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Croatian police arrested a Ukrainian man in the town of Pula on Wednesday on suspicion of participating in the 2022 bombing of the Nord Stream gas pipelines. German prosecutors identified the suspect as Vladimir Z, who is widely understood to be Volodymyr Zhuravlyov, a trained scuba diver. Authorities allege that Zhuravlyov was part of a group that used a yacht rented in Rostock, Germany, to plant explosives on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines near the Danish island of Bornholm in September 2022. Germany is now seeking his extradition to face charges of causing explosions, anti-constitutional sabotage, and the destruction of buildings.

This is the second arrest in the case. Another Ukrainian national, Serhiy Kuznetsov, a former military officer alleged to have led the operation, was arrested in Italy in August 2025 and later extradited to Germany. Zhuravlyov had previously been detained in Poland in 2025, but a Polish judge refused the extradition request to Germany. The Polish court argued that if Ukraine were responsible for the attack, it could be viewed as a justified act of defensive war. Some reports indicate Zhuravlyov may have been helped to escape Poland by a Ukrainian military attache.

The sabotage crippled the energy supply lines between Russia and Germany shortly after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. While German investigators believe the attack was ordered by Ukrainian state entities, officials in Kyiv have repeatedly denied any involvement. A separate investigation by Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office has not established Kyiv's role in the sabotage. The event has created diplomatic tension between Germany and its allies, particularly Poland, which had long opposed the pipeline project.

How each side framed it

Centre-left
These outlets emphasized the suspect's identity and the specific details of the diving operation.
Centre
These outlets focused on the legal proceedings and the diplomatic strain between Germany, Poland, and Ukraine.
Centre-right
This outlet provided a detailed technical breakdown of the pipeline damage and the various theories regarding the explosives used.

Sources

100% of the statements in this article were traced back to the source articles listed above.