Croatian court rules to place in custody Ukrainian suspect in Nord Stream sabotage

BELGRADE, August 21. /TASS/. A court in the Croatian city of Pula has ruled to put into custody a Ukrainian citizen, whose extradition is sought by Germany on suspicion of involvement in the sabotage of the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines. "The regional court in Pula announces that during hearings on August 20, the judge <…> ruled to place in custody a Ukrainian citizen in order to extradite him to the Federal Republic of Germany on the basis of a European arrest warrant," the court said in a statement. According to a statement from the German Prosecutor General's Office, a Ukrainian citizen presumed to be involved in the explosions of the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines has been detained in the Croatian city of Pula. Investigators allege that Vladimir Z., a professional scuba diver, was among those who planted explosives on the pipelines near the island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea. The detainee reportedly took part in diving operations associated with the attack. The prosecutor's office also indicated that the saboteurs used forged documents to rent a sailing yacht from a German company, which was employed to deliver the explosives to the pipelines. Prior to that, the German Attorney General's Office recalled that on June 30, charges were filed against Sergey K., another Ukrainian citizen accused of participating in the pipeline explosions. The case is scheduled to be heard by the Higher Regional Court in Hamburg. On September 26, 2022, unprecedented damage was reported on three lines of the Nord Stream pipeline and the unfinished Nord Stream 2 pipeline. The Russian Prosecutor General's Office initiated a case on international terrorism.