Nord Stream Suspect Zhuravlev Arrested in Croatia While Consulting on 2022 Blasts Film
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Aug 20
Nord Stream Suspect Zhuravlev Arrested in Croatia While Consulting on 2022 Blasts Film
3 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Aug 20
Summary
Croatian police detained Volodymyr Zhuravlev in Pula on a European arrest warrant while German media said he was consulting on Doug Liman’s film “Snake Island” about the 2022 Nord Stream sabotage.
German prosecutors say the professional scuba diver was part of a Ukrainian team that planted explosives off Bornholm, alongside Serhii K., who was extradited from Italy to Germany in 2025.
Zhuravlev had twice avoided German authorities before, including a 2024 escape from Poland; Der Spiegel reported a Ukrainian military attache helped him flee in a diplomatic car.
His lawyers will fight extradition, arguing a Croatian court now faces a case a Polish court already rejected last year, when it refused Germany’s warrant on jurisdiction and wartime-justification grounds.
The arrest revives a politically charged case that Ukraine denies directing and that defense lawyers say could test whether EU courts apply the same arrest warrant consistently.