The Italian police have arrested a Ukrainian man, accused of coordinating between Russia and Germany in 2022. Italian agents have arrested Rimini on Thursday to the suspect on which a European arrest warrant issued last Monday by the German Prosecutor’s Office. This is the first detention related to the sabotage of the gas pipelines, a case of great media impact. Germany is the only country that continues to investigate what happened, after Denmark and Sweden left the inquiries last year.
The Italian local media echo the information of the German press, which ensures that the man, identified as Serhii K., was arrested during the early morning in the municipality of Misano Adriatic, near the Italian city of Rimini, where he was on vacation with his family.
According to this information, the 49 -year -old detainee was part of the group of people who placed the explosives in the gas pipelines and specifically, it is believed that it was one of the coordinators of the attack, so it is considered suspicious of the crimes of causing explosions, of unconstitutional sabotage and destruction of structures.
Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines were built under the Baltic Sea to transport Russian gas to Western Europe, mainly Germany. Shortly after the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in February 2022 ,.
The German Prosecutor’s Office, who at this time has not shared details of the investigation, believes that the Ukrainian man arrested in Italy is one of the coordinators of sabotage operations. The group that perpetrated one of the greatest sabotage since World War II left the German port of Rostock aboard a sailing cave loaded with explosives to the place of the attack. The researchers point out that this boat was rented by a German society, using false documents and through intermediaries. German prosecutors consider that the detainee Ukraine was one of the people traveling on that ship, in which remains of submarine explosives were found.
Those explosions that occurred in September 2022, in the middle of the energy crisis triggered by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, seriously damaged both gas pipelines. The Nord Stream 1 was the main route to bring Russian natural gas to Western Europe, until after European countries take measures to become independent from Russian energy sources in response to the invasion of Ukraine by the Kremlin.
The Nord Stream 2 never came into service because Berlin suspended the authorization process.
In addition to damaging the gas pipeline network, a dangerous greenhouse gas that is accelerating global warming. The damage increased tensions around the war in Ukraine.
Many details about this sabotage are still unknown, although several journalistic information last year pointed to an operation executed by Ukraine after the Russian invasion. .
At the beginning Moscow accused Washington of being behind sabotage, something rejected by the United States. For a long time, the White House and some of its allies criticized the gas pipelines and warned that they were a risk to Europe’s energy security, since they increased the dependence of Russian gas.
The Ukrainian man arrested will be extradited from Italy to Germany, where he will make an investigating judge available.
The arrest of the Ukrainian citizen occurs at a critical moment of the Ukraine War, in which among the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodimir Zelenski, to boost peace negotiations.
