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According to Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Reuters, AFP and other media reports, the Polish prosecutor's office confirmed on the 14th that Poland had received a "European Arrest Warrant" from Germany, requesting Poland to assist in the arrest of a Ukrainian citizen suspected of participating in the destruction of the "Nord Stream" natural gas pipeline in 2022, but this person is no longer in Poland.

According to Anna Adamiak, a spokeswoman for the Polish prosecutor's office, the German authorities issued a "European arrest warrant" to the regional prosecutor's office in Warsaw, the capital of Poland, in June, involving the relevant procedures for Germany to handle the case involving the Ukrainian suspect. The suspect's last known whereabouts were in July when he entered Poland from Ukraine, but the Polish side did not find him when it searched his residence.

In accordance with Polish law, the prosecutor's office did not disclose the suspect's full name, only calling him "Vladimir Z." "In the end, Vladimir Z was not arrested because he crossed the Polish-Ukrainian border in early July and left Polish territory," Adamiak replied to reporters in an email.

She explained that the suspect was able to move freely in and out of the Polish-Ukrainian border because the relevant German agencies had not entered his name into the database of wanted persons, "which meant that the Polish border guards had no way of knowing and no reason to arrest Vladimir Z."

The explosion of the Nord Stream pipeline was blamed on a group of people who dived underwater to install explosive devices on the pipeline (data image)

German weekly newspapers Die Zeitung, Süddeutsche Zeitung and German TV One reported earlier on the 14th that German investigators believe that a group of people were responsible for diving underwater to install explosive devices on the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline in 2022, and the wanted Ukrainian was suspected of being involved. The German Federal Attorney General has obtained an arrest warrant for the Ukrainian, who was believed to be in Poland when the arrest warrant was issued.

A spokesman for the German Ministry of Justice declined to comment on the media reports.

According to the three German media reports, the German investigation found that another man and woman, both Ukrainian citizens, were suspected of sabotaging the Nord Stream pipeline and may have also dived to install explosive devices, but the German side has not yet issued an arrest warrant for the two. All three media outlets said their sources came from "a foreign intelligence agency."

It has been nearly two years since the Nord Stream pipeline explosion. This picture is a picture accompanying a related report

The news disclosed by Poland is the latest progress in the investigation of the "unsolved case" of the "Nord Stream" pipeline explosion in the past two years. On September 26, 2022, the Baltic Sea submarine gas pipelines "Nord Stream 1" and "Nord Stream 2" connecting Russia, Germany and other European countries experienced violent underwater explosions near the waters of Denmark and Sweden, causing a large amount of natural gas leakage. After the incident, a total of 4 leakage points were found in the two groups of pipelines, suspected of being sabotaged.

Afterwards, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and other countries involved refused Russia's participation in the investigation. Denmark and Sweden announced the end of the investigation in February this year without identifying any suspects.

Nord Stream 1 was originally the main pipeline for Russia to transport natural gas to Germany. After Nord Stream 2 was completed in 2021, it was never really put into use due to factors such as obstruction by the United States, escalation of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, and sanctions imposed by Europe and the United States on Russia. The explosion of the Nord Stream pipeline further damaged the economic ties between Russia and Europe, leading to tight natural gas supply and high prices in the EU market. However, there are still many doubts about who is behind the destruction of the Nord Stream pipeline.

Last year, Seymour Hersh, a well-known American investigative journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner, broke the news, citing an unnamed source, that the bombing of the Nord Stream pipeline was planned by the US intelligence agencies and approved by President Joseph Biden. The explosives were placed by US Navy divers and then detonated by Norwegian Navy aircraft dropping sonar buoys.

However, American and German media, citing American and German officials as their sources, said that the explosion may have been caused by a Ukrainian group and the Ukrainian government may not have been aware of it.

The German side informed the UN Security Council in July last year that its investigation found traces of explosives on a yacht and suspected that the yacht might have been used to transport explosives to carry out sabotage on the Nord Stream.