Croatia approves extradition of suspect in Nord Stream explosions

A district court in the Croatian city of Pula has approved the extradition to Germany of Ukrainian national Volodymyr Zhuravlov, one of the suspects in the 2022 explosions on the Nord Stream pipeline.

This was reported by the Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne.

The court’s ruling and the defense’s position

On September 18, a panel of three judges chaired by Edvina Suijevic issued the extradition ruling. The parties were notified in writing five days later, on September 23. The Croatian daily newspaper Večernje list was the first to report the decision.

Zhuravlov’s defense team intends to challenge the ruling. Lawyer Mykola Katerynchuk called the verdict “political” and said the firm is preparing an appeal to Croatia’s Supreme Court for Criminal Matters. Under Croatian law, the defense has three days to file an appeal. Zhuravlov himself announced an indefinite hunger strike in protest.

The path to prosecution

Zhuravlov, a professional diver and diving instructor, was arrested in August at a hotel in Pula on the basis of a European arrest warrant. According to Al Jazeera, the arrest took place on the set of a Hollywood film. German prosecutors allege that he was part of a group of six Ukrainians who planted explosives on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines in the Baltic Sea near the Danish island of Bornholm in September 2022.

Germany had previously sought Zhuravlov’s extradition from Poland, but a Polish court rejected that request and released him from custody in October 2025. In early September, Germany supplemented the European arrest warrant with a new charge — “war crime — attack on civilian infrastructure” — which delayed the extradition hearing originally scheduled for September 4.

A second figure in the case, former Ukrainian army officer Sergei Kuznetsov, was arrested in Italy in 2025 and transferred to Germany, where he was formally charged in July with organizing the explosions in the interests of Ukrainian state structures. Kuznetsov denies any involvement.

The geopolitical dimension

German prosecutors allege that the group acted “on the orders and with the approval of Ukrainian state authorities” — a claim Kyiv rejects. Volodymyr Zelensky stated in August that Ukraine had no involvement in the pipeline sabotage.

“Berlin is extremely interested in establishing the facts and bringing those responsible to Germany,” German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said, as quoted by Reuters.