Poland, Italy Block Extraditions in Nord Stream Case

A Polish court on Oct. 17 blocked the extradition to Germany of a Ukrainian identified as Volodymyr Z., who was arrested near Warsaw on Sept. 30 and whom German prosecutors allege was a trained diver involved in planting explosives on the Nord Stream pipelines in 2022. Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, has publicly opposed handing the suspect over, raising diplomatic tensions with Germany. The defendant denies the charges and his lawyer has argued that actions directed against Russia should not be treated as crimes; German investigators say the operation used a rented yacht and forged documents. Separately, Italy’s Supreme Court (Court of Cassation) on Oct. 15 overturned a lower court decision to extradite another Ukrainian, Serhii (Sergey) Kuznetsov, to Germany, citing legal misclassification in Germany’s European arrest warrant and sending the case back to the Bologna Court of Appeal for further review. Kuznetsov was arrested in late August while on holiday in Italy and remains in custody. Investigations into the 2022 Nord Stream blasts are ongoing across several countries amid widening diplomatic sensitivities, and Western governments including the U.S., U.K. and Ukraine deny involvement.