Ukrainian accused in Nord Stream attack seized on set of his own story

A Ukrainian national wanted over the 2022 Nord Stream pipeline explosions has been arrested on the Croatian film set of a movie recreating the sabotage. Volodymyr Zhuravlev was detained in Pula under a German European arrest warrant on the set of Doug Liman’s political thriller “Snake Island,” starring Sean Penn and Adrien Brody, ending a multi-year hunt for the trained scuba diver who had twice evaded law enforcement.

German federal prosecutors confirmed that local forces acted on their request. They describe Zhuravlev as a professional and experienced diver who formed part of a six-member group allegedly led by another Ukrainian, Serhii K. According to the investigation, the team used a sailing yacht rented under false identities from a German company in Rostock. In September 2022 the vessel sailed into the Baltic Sea near the Danish island of Bornholm, where the divers are said to have placed explosive devices on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines at a depth of roughly 80 meters. The blasts on 26 September severely damaged three of the four lines, cutting a major conduit for Russian natural gas to Germany and Western Europe.

The arrest marks the third serious attempt by German authorities to bring Zhuravlev into custody. In the summer of 2024 he fled Poland for Ukraine, reportedly after German administrative errors in logging him into international databases allowed him to cross the border despite an active warrant. Der Spiegel later reported that a Ukrainian military attaché in Warsaw may have assisted by hiding him in the boot of a diplomatic vehicle. He returned to the Warsaw area in the autumn of 2025 and was detained by Polish police, only for a Polish court to refuse extradition. The judges ruled that Germany lacked jurisdiction and that any destruction of the pipelines could be viewed as a legitimate act of defensive warfare by Ukraine against an aggressor whose military machine was financed in large part by energy exports. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has long articulated the prevailing political view in Warsaw: the problem with Nord Stream was not that it was blown up, but that it was built in the first place.

A meta-twist on the Adriatic coast

Filming for “Snake Island” had begun earlier in August in Zagreb, where locals noticed sandbags, barricades and extras in Ukrainian military uniforms outside the historic Esplanade hotel. Sean Penn and Adrien Brody were spotted on set alongside director Liman. The production later moved to Pula, an ancient Roman port known for its clear waters, precisely the kind of location suited to underwater sequences. Liman had publicly expressed enthusiasm about working by the sea. German media, citing Legal Tribune Online, reported that Zhuravlev was present as a consultant, lending authenticity to the dramatization of the sabotage operation he is himself accused of joining. Production representatives have not yet issued a detailed explanation of his role or of how authorities learned of his presence.

Photos published in Croatian newspapers showed two officers leading a middle-aged man in a blue T-shirt and brown cap away from the set. Zhuravlev’s Polish defence lawyer, Tymoteusz Paprocki, confirmed that his client was not in Croatia on holiday and must have had serious reasons for being there. Paprocki anticipates a new legal battle: if Croatia declines to extradite, its courts will effectively rehear a matter already decided by another EU member state under the same European arrest warrant, the same facts and the same international legal instruments. He called the situation a test of the consistency of European law.

German prosecutors point to state involvement

German investigators maintain that the operation was ordered by Ukrainian state structures with the aim of denying Russia future energy revenues. Both Zhuravlev and Serhii K., who was arrested in 2025 while on holiday near Rimini, Italy, and later extradited to Germany, are said to have maintained links to official Ukrainian entities. In December 2025 the German Federal Supreme Court, ruling on an appeal related to K.’s detention, noted serious grounds for believing the attack was initiated and directed by state actors. The court cited the use of authentic identity documents with altered personal data, the professional character of the operation and its clear political objective. Such findings raise the possibility of functional immunity for state officials, a potential procedural bar to prosecution. At the same time the court indicated that alternative charges under Germany’s International Criminal Law Act – treating the blasts as a military attack on civilian objects protected by humanitarian law – could still be available, since war crimes and violent espionage fall outside ordinary functional immunity.

Ukraine has consistently denied any involvement in the Nord Stream sabotage and has called for the true circumstances to be established, stressing that the explosions occurred amid Russia’s full-scale war of aggression. Zhuravlev himself has publicly rejected the accusations. His lawyers will now fight extradition to Germany, where conviction could bring a lengthy prison sentence.

Sources: The Guardian, Euronews, Deutsche Welle

Ukrainian man arrested in Italy over Nord Stream pipeline attacks

Caption: Ukrainian Volodymyr Zhuravlev (C) sits in the courtroom of the District Court in Warsaw, Poland, 17 October 2025. The court decided to refuse to extradite Volodymyr Zhuravlev, a suspect in connection with the Nord Stream gas pipeline blast, to the German authorities, as well as to lift the preventive measure of pre-trial detention and ordered the immediate release of the Ukrainian citizen. EPA/RAFAL GUZ