“The case is closed,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote on X after a Warsaw court refused to send a Ukrainian man to Germany to face accusations over the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage. The suspect, identified only as Volodymyr Z., was released from custody.
The judge said the German request “does not merit being taken into consideration.” Tusk, quoted by the Kyiv Independent, added: “And rightly so.”
What the judge said
Judge Dariusz Lubowski explained that the hearing was not meant to decide whether the man was guilty. The question was whether the alleged acts were sufficient grounds to execute a European arrest warrant. On that point he was blunt. “The Polish court has no evidence in this case, as the German side has only provided very general information,” he said. The court also lacked the evidence to say whether Kyiv was behind the pipeline blasts, he noted.
Lubowski went further on the wider context. Given Russia’s invasion, Ukrainians could not be considered terrorists or saboteurs, he argued, because “in pursuing the goal of defending their homeland, they weaken the enemy.”
The prosecutor’s office, which backed the warrant, can appeal.
The accusation
The suspect is 46 and was described as a diving instructor. He was arrested on Sept. 30 in a Warsaw suburb on a European arrest warrant issued by Berlin. German prosecutors say he “was part of a group of individuals who placed explosive devices on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines near the island of Bornholm [Denmark] in September 2022.” German authorities allege the operation ran from a rented sailing yacht that left the port of Rostock, reportedly obtained through intermediaries using forged German documents. When he was arrested, the man accused the pipeline’s owner, Gazprom, of financing Russia’s military operations.
Italy’s top court made a similar decision days earlier. On Oct. 15 it overturned the extradition of another Ukrainian, Serhii Kuznetsov, who was also wanted by Germany on related charges.
Tusk’s position
Tusk had said before the ruling that extradition would be “against Poland’s interests.” He said those who built Nord Stream 2 “should be ashamed and remain silent,” not the people accused of sabotaging it. He added that he told former German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Poland’s stance “many months ago.”
Ukraine’s Ambassador to Poland, Vasyl Bodnar, said on Oct. 7 that Kyiv was not interfering in the proceedings. German investigators earlier linked the sabotage to a pro-Ukraine group but did not claim the Ukrainian government was directly involved.
The blasts, months after Moscow’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, damaged pipelines that had carried Russian gas to Europe for years. Czech President Petr Pavel later said the pipelines were a “legitimate target” if Kyiv had been behind the attack.
Sources
- Polish court refuses extradition of Ukrainian suspect to Germany in Nord Stream case
- Polish Court Refuses Extradition of Nord Stream Sabotage Suspect – The Moscow Times
