Floating Storage and Regasification Unit (FSRU) ‘Neptune’ behind a container painted with a map of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in Lubmin, Germany, on 14 January, 2023. The pipelines are a major source of tension between Germany and its EU allies for making Europe more dependent on Russian gas. Credit: John Macdougall / Getty.

German authorities have issued an arrest warrant for a Ukrainian man accused of sabotaging the Nord Stream gas pipelines nearly two years ago.

Germany’s chief prosecutor issued the warrant following an investigation by news outlets ARD, Süddeutsche Zeitung and Die Zeit earlier today (14 August).

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The suspect, a 44-year-old Ukrainian diving instructor named Volodymyr Zhuravlov, is alleged to have hijacked the German-flagged Andromeda yacht at the island of Rügen with two accomplices on 26 September, 2022 – two days after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The three men allegedly directed the Andromeda’s driver to the location of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, before two of the men dived underwater and detonated man-made Trinitrotoluene (TNT) explosives. Ruptures led to four leaks on the pipelines, releasing plumes of methane into the atmosphere.

Zhuravlov was last known to be living in a village west of Warsaw, Poland, but is believed to have gone into hiding, DW reported.

Police and prosecutors have found no evidence of involvement by Ukraine’s intelligence services or military, an allegation which Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has constantly denied.

Why are the Nord Stream pipelines important?

The Nord Stream pipelines have long been a major source of geopolitical tension between Berlin and its EU allies for making the bloc even more reliant on Russian energy.

Nord Stream 1 was the primary conduit for Russian natural gas into Germany. It also supplied EU nations with roughly 35% of all the gas they import from Russia.

Nord Stream 2 had been completed but had not yet gone into operation, as Moscow had already suspended most gas deliveries to Germany amid the Ukraine invasion.

The 1,230-kilometre-long pipeline attracted criticism from Germany’s eastern European neighbours for allowing Russia to bypass Poland and the Baltic states to supply gas directly into Germany, the region’s largest economy and manufacturers.

While reportedly unconnected to Ukraine’s armed forces, the Nord Stream sabotage has been the most significant of various attacks on energy infrastructure amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Last week, Ukrainian forces seized a key gas distribution hub in a rare counter-incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, prompting a sharp rise in gas prices. The Sudzha gas station is the only operational route for Russian pipeline gas into Europe following the Nord Stream attacks.

In April, there was widespread concern of radiological contamination as Russia took Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant ‘hostage’.

Moscow also stands accused of ‘ecocide’ for decimating Ukraine’s habitat and natural spaces, while Russian drone strikes have repeatedly targeted Ukraine’s energy grid, causing outages across Odesa, Kyiv and other regions.