The adviser to the Ukrainian presidency Mihailo Podoliak denied today their country’s involvement in the explosions that damaged the gas pipeline Nord Stream 2 and pointed to Russia instead.

“Such an action can only be carried out with extensive technical and financial resources…And who had all this at the time of the explosion? Only Russia,” Podoliak told Reuters.

Yesterday it became known that while Germany had issued a European arrest warrant against a Ukrainian diving instructor who allegedly participated in the group that blew up the Nord Stream gas pipelines, Poland, where the alleged saboteur resided, failed to arrest him.

The report was published yesterday in three German media and confirmed by the Polish authorities.

German investigators believe the man, identified as Volodymyr Z, who lived in Poland, was one of the divers who in September 2022 planted explosive devices in pipelines running from Russia to Germany through the bottom of the Baltic Sea, the papers said. Sueddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) and Die Zeit and German state broadcaster ARD reported, citing unnamed sources.

Germany asked Poland in June to arrest the man in question, according to the report.

Spiegel reported, citing sources in the security forces, that the suspect is believed to have since fled Poland.

Another man and woman – also Ukrainian diving instructors – have been identified as part of Germany’s investigation into the alleged sabotage, but so far no arrest warrants have been issued for them, according to SZ, Die Zeit and the ARD.

The Polish prosecutor’s office confirmed yesterday that it has received, in the context of the investigation into the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines at the end of September 2022, an arrest warrant issued by Germany against a Ukrainian resident in Poland, but who has already left the country.

Reacting to information made public by German media, the prosecutor’s office confirmed that German authorities had issued a European arrest warrant against Volodymyr Z in June.

However, a spokesman for the Polish attorney general’s office clarified that Berlin did not put the suspect on the wanted list, which allowed him to return in early July to Ukraine without being stopped at the border.

The fact that the Germans did not include his name in the wanted list “means that the Polish border guards were not informed, and they had no reason to detain Volodymyr Z,” spokeswoman Anna Adamiak underlined.

Under the rules of European judicial mutual assistance, Polish authorities had 60 days to react to the German request and arrest the main suspect, which was not done for unspecified reasons, the German media said.

According to this German media, the German judiciary suspects that Volodymyr Z. was involved in the sabotage of the gas pipelines together with two other Ukrainian divers, who are listed as Zevhen U. and Svitlana U.

The three allegedly planted the explosives from a sailing ship, the Andromède, into which German prosecutors revealed in 2023 that they had opened an investigation.

It remains a mystery who was behind the explosions that destroyed three of the four gas pipelines, which have been a controversial symbol of Germany’s dependence on Russian gas since Moscow’s forces invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Russia and the West have accused each other of being behind the blasts. Both have denied involvement and no one has claimed responsibility.

A Swedish investigation found traces of explosives in various items recovered from the site of the explosions, confirming that the explosions were deliberate actions.

In January 2023, Germany raided a ship it said may have been used to transport explosives, and told the United Nations it believed trained divers planted explosive devices in the pipelines, at a depth of about 70 to 80 meters.