A new twist has emerged in the Croatian city of Pula, linked to an international story that has long been the focus of global attention. A local court has ruled to extradite to Germany a Ukrainian citizen, the professional diver Vladimir Zhuravlev, who has found himself at the centre of allegations of involvement in the sabotage of the ‘Nord Stream 1’ and ‘Nord Stream 2’ gas pipelines. These explosions, which occurred in September 2022, caused significant damage to the pipelines through which Russian gas was supplied to Europe.
Interestingly, the court’s decision was actually made on 18 September, but details only came to light several days later thanks to the Ukrainian television channel ‘Suspilne’ and the Croatian newspaper Večernji list. Zhuravlev’s defence team have no intention of giving up and plan to appeal the verdict.
Zhuravlev’s lawyers had insisted that the case be referred to the International Criminal Court, as they consider the charges of sabotaging gas pipelines to be a war crime. However, the Croatian court rejected their request. It should be recalled that Vladimir was arrested in Croatia in August on the basis of two European arrest warrants issued by Germany. One of these relates to his alleged involvement in anti-constitutional sabotage and the destruction of infrastructure, whilst the other concerns a war crime.
This is not Zhuravlev’s first arrest. In 2025, he was previously arrested in Poland, but the court at the time refused to extradite him to Germany. Zhuravlev himself maintains that he was in Ukraine at the time the gas pipelines were blown up and had nothing to do with the sabotage.
The case concerning the gas pipeline explosions also involves allegations against six other individuals. Among them is Sergei Kuznetsov, who was detained in Italy in 2025. An Italian court has already approved his extradition to Germany, although Kuznetsov also denies the charges.
The ‘Nord Stream’ incident has become the subject of an international investigation involving Sweden, Denmark and Germany. Although all three have confirmed that the gas pipelines were blown up, those responsible have not yet been identified. Russia, which is not participating in the investigation, blames the US and its allies for the incident. For their part, the Western media and the German authorities have not yet levelled any official accusations against Ukraine, despite rumours of possible involvement by the Ukrainian security services. Kyiv rejects all accusations.
Be that as it may, this story continues to be the focus of international attention, raising numerous questions and causing divisions between countries.