A Croatian court postponed the extradition hearing for Volodymyr Zhuravlev, a second Ukrainian national suspected of involvement in the 2022 Nord Stream pipeline sabotage, after Germany updated his European arrest warrant with a new classification of a “war crime.”
The hearing was initially scheduled for Friday, Sept. 4. Meanwhile, Zhuravlev remains in pre-trial detention in Pula. The court has classified the case as urgent, according to a Croatian state-owned news, HRT.
“For the defense, this marks a new stage in the fight for the rights of the Ukrainian citizen,” a Ukrainian law firm that represents Zhuravlev, “Katerynchuk, Moor and Partners,” said in a statement on Friday.
Nord Stream operation
Nord Stream consisted of two major underwater pipeline projects – Nord Stream 1 and 2 – which connected Russia and Germany via the Baltic Sea.
Nord Stream 1 carried Russian gas to Germany, whereas Nord Stream 2 never entered service upon its completion due to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which prompted Germany to halt its certification.
Underwater explosions damaged three out of the four pipelines on Sept. 26, 2022, causing the gas to leak into the Baltic Sea. The explosions were treated as deliberate sabotage and triggered investigations across Germany, Denmark and Sweden.
While Denmark and Sweden eventually closed their investigations, Germany continued pursuing the case, developing a hypothesis that a small group of people used a yacht called “Andromeda” to reach the area of the pipelines and plant explosives near the Danish island of Bornholm.
Reportedly, the group traveled from Ukraine to Germany using forged Ukrainian passports before renting the yacht from a company in the northern port city, Rostock. The suspects then sailed to Bornholm and attached devices containing military-grade HMX and RDX explosives to the underwater pipelines, using timed detonators.
Their initial hypothesis of the group including trained divers was confirmed when German prosecutors identified several Ukrainian nationals as suspects, with one of them – Zhuravlev – being a licensed scuba diver.
Besides Zhuravlev, Serhii Kuznetsov was among the key suspects. He was accused of leading the group and coordinating the sabotage, because of his service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) at the time of the operation.
German prosecutors accused Kuznetsov, Zhuravlev, along with six other accomplices, of acting on behalf of “state authorities in Ukraine” to halt Moscow’s energy revenues and, in doing so, slow down Russia’s war efforts.
Kuznetsov denies involvement
According to German media outlets in early July, Kuznetsov faced charges including complicity in a war crime, causing an explosion, disrupting public services, and destroying critical infrastructure.
In August 2025, he was extradited from Italy on a German warrant. However, he repeatedly denied any role in the sabotage.
Zhuravlev arrested on set of a film about the operation
Zhuravlev’s arrest drew additional attention because it reportedly occurred while he was working as a consultant on the set of “Snake Island” – a political thriller based on the Nord Stream sabotage – the same operation he was accused of participating in.
The film, directed by Doug Liman and starring Sean Penn and Adrien Brody, uses Croatian locations to portray the Baltic Sea setting of the real-life operation.
According to local media reports, Zhuravlev had been consulted as an adviser on the production, with some outlets describing his role as that of an expert consultant on the diving sequences.
Zhuravlev is expected to eventually face extradition proceedings to Germany, where he will face charges related to the pipeline sabotage and the newly added war crime allegation.