Kyiv played no part in the 2022 bombing that ruptured the Nord Stream gas pipelines, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Aug. 23, adding that his country was willing to cooperate with an ongoing German investigation into the blasts.
“Ukraine has officially never taken part in any operation related to the sabotage of Nord Stream 2,” Zelenskyy said during the Ukraine-Nordic-Baltic Eight summit in Kyiv, according to Ukrainian state news agency Ukrinform.
“The issue is not about who wants what or who does not. There is an investigation, and it is currently underway. There is a situation, there are allegations, there are relevant witnesses — in other words, the process is ongoing.”
A Ukrainian man suspected of being involved in the 2022 Nord Stream pipeline blasts was arrested in Croatia on Aug. 19. The suspect, described as a scuba diver by German prosecutors, who have identified him only as Vladimir Z., was arrested in a hotel in the Croatian coastal city of Pula on a European arrest warrant.
Another suspect in the case, former Ukrainian army officer Serhii K., was charged by prosecutors in July with orchestrating the blasts while acting on behalf of Ukrainian state entities. That man, who was arrested in Italy in August 2025 and transferred to Germany in November, has denied any involvement in the blasts near the Danish island of Bornholm.
Zelenskyy said on Sunday that high-level talks between Kyiv and Berlin had been held on the matter, adding that Germany knows “perfectly well that Ukraine was not behind the planning or execution of the operation in question.”
“It is very important for us not to lose our partnership or the trust of the European countries that have been helping Ukraine since the beginning of this war,” he said. “That is why we are absolutely open to taking joint steps in the investigation and to joint efforts to establish all the circumstances surrounding the actions taken at that time.”
Prosecutors described Vladimir Z. as part of a group associated with Serhii K., a former Ukrainian army officer. Vladimir Z. faces charges under German law of anti-constitutional sabotage and destruction of buildings and structures.
Serhii K. was formally charged on July 2 with causing an explosion, damaging property, disrupting public service, and being an “accomplice to war crimes” by attacking civilian objects.
Authorities allege that Vladimir Z. and the group left Rostock, a port in northeastern Germany along the Baltic Sea, on board a sailing yacht rented from a German company using fake IDs.
Explosives were allegedly detonated by the suspects on Sept. 26, 2022, according to prosecutors.
Vladimir Z. will face a judge at the Federal Court of Justice in Germany after he is extradited from Croatia.
German courts have treated the case as falling within their jurisdiction because the damaged pipelines end in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and the incident affected Germany’s energy security and internal safety.
A court in Croatia ordered Vladimir Z. to be held in custody until his extradition to Germany, which his lawyers said he would appeal, Croatian outlet Index reported on Aug. 20.
German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said last week that his ministry has been in contact with the Croatian authorities to facilitate the suspect’s extradition but that the procedures can take time.
“We have a strong interest in clarifying the facts in this context and … ensuring that the perpetrators are brought to Germany, where they will be dealt with appropriately,” Dobrindt added.
A spokesperson for the German prosecutor’s office confirmed with The Associated Press that Vladimir Z. was the same man who was arrested in Poland last year—identified as Volodymyr Zhuravlov—and later released when a Polish court refused to extradite him to Germany.
Ukrainian Volodymyr Zhuravlyov walks free from the courtroom after the judge’s decision to deny Germany’s extradition request and lift his pretrial detention at the district court in Warsaw, Poland, on Oct. 17, 2025. Omar Marques/Getty Images
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said at the time that Zhuravlov’s extradition was not in the country’s interest. The judge also ruled the German application inadmissible.
It was not immediately clear why Zhuravlov left Poland following the ruling.
“Volodymyr knew that the ruling applies only on the territory of Poland,” his Polish lawyer, Tymoteusz Paprocki, told The Associated Press, adding that Zhuravlov’s wife was also surprised that her husband was detained in Croatia.
Tusk said on Aug. 20 that he still believed that Germany should not prosecute Zhuravlov, telling reporters that Poland had long opposed the construction of the pipeline and had done everything it could to prevent it from being built.
“Germany had a different opinion at the time. They changed their mind, but too late,” Tusk said, according to Polish outlet TVP World, adding that Berlin “should certainly not prosecute those who, in a situation where their country has been attacked, take one action or another.”
“I will not change my mind here, and I believe that those who built this pipeline should be ashamed, not those who disabled it.”
Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Aug. 21 told Russian state-run newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta that the blasts were “an act of terrorist sabotage against Europe’s critical energy infrastructure.”
“And of course, if Mr. Tusk advocates such acts of terrorist sabotage and supports them, it can provoke nothing but astonishment and incomprehension,” Peskov added.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Aug. 23 that he believed the Polish premier’s stance was motivated by Warsaw’s loss of transit revenues caused by the construction of the pipeline.
“You know, I have known Mr. Tusk for a long time, going back to the preparations for the construction of Nord Stream 2 and the construction itself,” Putin told Russian state-owned outlet Vesti.
“Mr. Tusk was also prime minister at the time, and the motives behind the current Polish government’s position are clear to me. The motives are very simple: economic expediency.”
The multibillion-dollar Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines run from Russia to Germany through the Baltic Sea, and were designed to deliver Russian gas to Europe.
The release of gas emanating from a leak on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea on Sept. 27, 2022. Swedish Coast Guard via Getty Images
Leaks in the pipelines were discovered in 2022 between Sept. 26 and Sept. 29 in the Swedish and Danish economic zones near the Danish island of Bornholm.
Investigators in Denmark, Germany, and Sweden notified the United Nations Security Council in 2023 that their investigations had established that the pipelines were damaged by sabotage.
Russia has accused the United States of staging the explosions, a charge Washington has denied. The pipelines were long a target of criticism by the United States and some of its allies, which warned that they increased dependence on Russian gas.
A United Nations report completed in January 2025 found the explosions resulted in the planet’s largest human-caused release of methane.
Jill McLaughlin, Reuters, and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
