A 44-year-old Ukrainian diver is suspected of committing acts of sabotage on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines in September 2022, according to several media outlets, including the Swedish newspaper Expressen, the German newspapers Süddeutsche Zeitung and Die Zeit, and the television station ARD.

A court in Karlsruhe, Germany, issued an international arrest warrant against the Ukrainian in June.

According to the four media outlets, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office in Germany is investigating a total of three suspects in the case against the 44-year-old Ukrainian diver.

His name is Volodymyr Shuralow, who lives with his family in a suburb of the Polish capital Warsaw.

However, according to Expressen, he has gone into hiding.

Germany, Sweden and Denmark investigated the case. But at the beginning of the year both the Swedish and Danish police stopped their investigations.

On the night of September 26, 2022, an explosion was recorded at Nord Stream 2 in the Baltic Sea, about 20 kilometers south of Dueodde on Bornholm.

At 19:03 an explosion was registered at Nord Stream 1.

Subsequently, four large holes were found in three gas pipes.

The other two suspects in the case are a woman and a man. Like the 44-year-old, they are both Ukrainians and, according to Expressen, run a diving company in Ukraine.

Zhuralov is also associated with the diving company, although it is not clear in what form.

An image of a white Citroën van captured by a police radar on the German island of Rügen reportedly put German police on the trail of the three Ukrainians.

The photo was taken in early September 2022, when the sailboat “Andromeda” docked at the Baltic Sea island. The German police had previously linked the sailboat in question to acts of sabotage on Nord Stream 1 and 2.

Nord Stream 1 was inaugurated in 2011 and 2012, while Nord Stream 2 was not yet operational at the time of the sabotage.

Both pipelines were intended to transport gas from Russia via Germany to Europe.

English translation: Catherine Brett