Poland received German request to arrest Nord Stream suspect

Poland received a European arrest warrant issued by Berlin in connection with the 2022 attack on Nord Stream pipelines, but the suspect, a Ukrainian man named Volodymyr Z, has already left Poland, Polish prosecutors told Reuters.

He was able to leave as Germany had failed to include his name in a database of wanted persons, added the prosecutors.

The multi-billion dollar Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines transporting gas under the Baltic Sea were ruptured by a series of explosions in September 2022, seven months after Russian forces moved into Ukraine in a "special military operation."

German investigators believe Volodymyr Z, a Ukrainian diver, was part of a team that planted the explosives, the SZ and Die Zeit newspapers reported alongside the ARD broadcaster, citing unnamed sources.

Polish National Public Prosecutor's Office spokeswoman Anna Adamiak said German authorities sent a European warrant to the District Prosecutor's Office in Warsaw in June for Volodymyr Z in connection with proceedings conducted against him in Germany.

"Ultimately, Volodymyr Z was not detained because at the beginning of July he left Polish territory, crossing the Polish-Ukrainian border," she wrote in an emailed statement in reply to Reuters questions.

"Free crossing of the Polish-Ukrainian border by the above-mentioned person was possible because German authorities... did not include him in the database of wanted persons, which meant that the Polish Border Guard had no knowledge and no grounds to detain Volodymyr Z."

Polish law does not allow for the publication of the full names of suspects in criminal investigations.

Germany said its relationship with Ukraine was not strained by the Nord Stream inquiry.