One of the main suspects in the 2022 Nord Stream explosions was arrested while reportedly acting as a consultant on a Hollywood film which dramatises the gas pipeline attack, according to German media.
Volodymyr Zhuravlev was arrested by police in Pula, Croatia, under a European arrest warrant put out by Germany, which is seeking his extradition.
German prosecutors accuse him of being a member of a team of Ukrainian divers that allegedly planted explosives on the Baltic Sea energy link between Russia and Germany which destroyed three of the four pipelines in 2022. They describe Zhuravlev as a professional and experienced scuba diver.
The German media outlet Legal Tribune Online reported he was arrested while working as a consultant on the set for the movie Snake Island which is being filmed in Croatia and is directed by Doug Liman, who also directed The Bourne Identity.
The film is a fictional political thriller starring Oscar-winning Adrien Brody and Sean Penn. Neither Brody, Penn, or the film’s production team have commented on the arrest.
Zhuravlev has denied any involvement in the underwater plot. The Ukrainian government said it had nothing to do with the sabotage of Nord Stream and said it wanted to establish the “true circumstances” of the incident.
Zhuravlev was previously held in Poland in September 2025 over the allegations. However, authorities there refused to extradite him and let him go.
They said that Germany had no jurisdiction and that the destruction of the pipelines could be seen as a legitimate act of war rather than a crime. Poland has long opposed the controversial pipeline – with Russia’s oil and natural gas exports have helped fund its war effort.
On Thursday, the Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, said Germany should not prosecute the Nord Stream suspects, adding those who built the Russian gas links “should be ashamed, not those who disabled them.”
Mr Tusk told reporters that Poland had done everything it could to prevent its construction, warning that it would deepen Europe’s dependence on Russian energy.
“But Germany should certainly not prosecute those who, in a situation where their country has been attacked, take one action or another.”
Last month German federal prosecutors filed charges against a former Ukrainian army officer in connection with the same explosions. Serhii K. was detained in August 2025 in an Italian village, where officers raided a bungalow where he was staying with his family. He was extradited to Germany in November. He denies the charges.
The Baltic Sea sabotage attack happened on 26 September 2022, months after Moscow’s February full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
At the time, Charles Michel, then president of the European Council, said in a statement on Twitter, now X: “Nordstream sabotage acts appear to be an attempt to further destabilize energy supply to EU. We need an urgent and thorough investigation. Those responsible will be held fully accountable and made to pay.”
Snake Island, or Zmiinyi Island, is a Ukrainian island in the Black Sea, which is strategically important as it controls sea and air space off southern Ukraine. It became notorious at the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine when it came under attack.
The Ukrainian border guards stationed on the rocky outcrop famously told a Russian warship to “go f*** yourself” – their defiant last message before Russia took them prisoner, although they were feared dead at first. They were later released and the island recaptured by Ukraine.
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