BERLIN, August 14. /TASS/. German prosecutors have issued an arrest warrant for a Ukrainian diving instructor suspected of having played a role in sabotaging the Nord Stream gas pipelines, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) newspaper reported, citing a joint probe by ARD television and Die Zeit newspaper.

According to the newspaper, the suspect in question is a Ukrainian national, Vladimir Z., a diving school instructor, whose last known whereabouts were in Poland. However, he has reportedly disappeared.

The German Federal Public Prosecutor is also investigating two other Ukrainian diving instructors, including a woman, the SZ newspaper said. Together, the three are suspected to have formed the crew of the yacht Andromeda at the center of the German investigation.

The vessel might have been used for delivering explosives to the natural gas pipelines. In an interview with the SZ, the woman said she had never met with Vladimir Z., claiming to be on vacation in Bulgaria in September 2022. The newspaper could not contact her husband, who is the third and final suspect. While German investigators do not have evidence tying the suspects to the Ukrainian military or government, their online activity clearly shows that the three are pro-Ukrainian, the newspaper insists.

The Nord Stream AG company reported on September 27, 2022, that three threads of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 offshore gas pipelines had suffered unprecedented damage. Swedish seismologists recorded two explosions along the Nord Stream pipelines on September 26. The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office launched an investigation into an act of international terrorism over damage to the pipelines. US investigative journalist Seymour Hersh later published an article claiming that US Navy divers, with the assistance of Norwegian specialists, had planted explosive devices under the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines in June 2022. In turn, the New York Times reported, citing US officials, that a certain "pro-Ukrainian" group may have committed the act of sabotage on the gas pipelines.