A Polish court will decide on Friday whether to extradite a Ukrainian diver, identified as Volodymyr Z., to Germany, where he is wanted in connection with the 2022 Nord Stream gas pipeline explosions that severed key Russian gas links to Europe.
While Warsaw maintains that the decision rests solely with the judiciary, Prime Minister Donald Tusk has publicly voiced opposition to handing the suspect over, saying it would not be in Poland’s national interest.
Earlier this month, Tusk remarked that the problem was “not that the pipelines were blown up, but that they were built at all,” underscoring long-standing tensions between Warsaw and Berlin over Europe’s energy dependence on Russia.
The September 2022 explosions off the Danish island of Bornholm crippled the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, which had carried Russian gas to Europe. The attacks marked a major escalation in the fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and intensified the continent’s energy crisis.
According to Germany’s federal prosecutors, Volodymyr Z. is suspected of helping rent a sailing yacht and planting explosives on the pipelines as part of a group operation. He faces charges of conspiring to commit an explosives attack and “anti-constitutional sabotage.”
His Polish lawyer, Tymoteusz Paprocki, rejects the accusations, arguing that the case concerns “the destruction of Russian property by a Ukrainian at a time of war,” questioning whether it should even be considered a criminal act.
Polish regional prosecutor Piotr Skiba said that, from a legal standpoint, it would be difficult not to hand Volodymyr Z. over to Germany, though the final decision lies with the Warsaw court.
Under Polish law, extradition can be denied if it violates the suspect’s human rights or if proceedings for the same offence are already underway in Poland. Warsaw has opened its own investigation into the Nord Stream bombings, but Volodymyr Z. is being treated as a witness, not a suspect.
Diplomatic tensions have risen between Poland and Germany, two of Ukraine’s key allies, over the politically sensitive case.
One German diplomat told reporters that Tusk’s remarks risk straining bilateral cooperation, though another downplayed the prospect of open conflict, saying Berlin’s investigation would continue regardless of the court’s ruling.
In a related case, another Ukrainian suspect, Serhii K., won a temporary reprieve in Italy on Wednesday after the country’s top court upheld an appeal against his extradition to Germany on procedural grounds. That case will return to an Italian court for further consideration.
The Warsaw court’s decision on Volodymyr Z.’s fate could have broader implications for European cooperation on the investigation into one of the continent’s most consequential acts of sabotage in decades.
Source: Reuters
Written By Rodney Mbua
