Poland refuses to extradite Ukrainian in Nord Stream probe
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has expressed his opposition to extraditing a Ukrainian suspect in the Nord Stream sabotage case to Germany. The Polish authorities detained the man last month. Berlin’s previous request for his arrest was reportedly obstructed by the Polish government in 2024.
It is ultimately up to a court to decide whether the suspect identified by the media as Vladimir Z. will be handed over to Berlin, Tusk told a press conference on Tuesday. However, he maintained that the move would not be good for Warsaw.
“It is certainly not in the interest of Poland... to hand over this citizen to a foreign country,” the prime minister said. “The problem of Europe, the problem of Ukraine, the problem of Lithuania and Poland is not that Nord Stream 2 was blown up, but that it was built.”
The German authorities have not commented on Tusk’s remarks.
Vladimir Z. was detained in the city of Pruszkow in late September. The suspect is a Ukrainian diving instructor, who was reportedly part of a team behind the Nord Stream pipeline explosions. The four undersea pipelines were rendered inoperable in September 2022 as a result of a sabotage. German prosecutors have attributed the underwater blasts to a small group of Ukrainian nationals that sailed to the scene aboard the rented yacht Andromeda.
Moscow has rejected Berlin’s version, dismissing the claim that a small group of Ukrainians carried out the sabotage as “ridiculous.” Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested the US likely orchestrated the operation.
Warsaw, which has been one of Kiev’s staunchest backers since 2022, allegedly considered granting asylum to the suspect, according to a September report by Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita. Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski also repeatedly stated that he was ready to do so.
Previous media reports also suggested that Polish officials helped Vladimir Z. avoid arrest on a German request last year by tipping him off. A vehicle with Ukrainian diplomatic plates reportedly allowed him to flee to Ukraine.
