BERLIN, August 29. /TASS/. The suspect wanted in Germany for blowing up the Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines, a Ukrainian national named Vladimir Z., fled from Poland to Ukraine in a Ukrainian embassy car, Germany’s Spiegel magazine reported after conducting an investigation with the ZDF TV channel and the Danish radio station DR.
"The car that took him across the border clearly did not belong to him. According to security sources, it was a car with diplomatic plates from the Ukrainian embassy in Warsaw," Spiegel writes.
According to the magazine, after committing the act of sabotage, the suspect made several trips to Germany, the last time just a few days before the German authorities issued an arrest warrant for him.
On June 21, Germany sent the order to Poland. The sources told the media outlet that at first, Polish prosecutors had signaled readiness to immediately detain the Ukrainian national but allegedly did nothing. Moreover, Polish officials said on the sidelines of intergovernmental consultations with Germany in early July that Warsaw had no intention of assisting Berlin in investigating the blasts.
On July 6, the suspect fled from Poland to Ukraine. "Berlin is confident that Warsaw had warned him," Spiegel notes, adding that the German government was outraged by Warsaw’s actions.
Nord Stream case
August Hanning, who served as director of Germany's Federal Intelligence Service in 1998-2005, said on August 15 that the presidents of Poland and Ukraine, Andrzej Duda and Vladimir Zelensky, had apparently agreed to collaborate in sabotaging the pipelines as it could not have been just a private endeavor. He also called on the German leadership to demand that Warsaw and Kiev make up for the losses following the blasts if their involvement in the acts of sabotage was proved.
The Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported earlier, citing a joint probe with ARD television and the weekly Die Zeit, that Germany’s Prosecutor General’s office issued an arrest warrant for a Ukrainian diving instructor, suspected of being involved in the Nord Stream explosions. According to the newspaper, another two Ukrainian diving instructors are also suspected of being involved in this act of sabotage. The German media accused Poland of failing to assist in the investigation.
In turn, the Wall Street Journal, citing sources, reported that Zelensky had approved the plan to blow up the gas pipelines but tried to cancel his decision after the CIA found out about it.