Ukrainian suspect detained in Italy over 2022 Nord Stream sabotage

A Ukrainian suspect has been arrested in Italy for allegedly involvement in the explosions that hit the Nord Stream gas pipelines in September 2022, German prosecutors said on Thursday.

The man is accused of participating in causing undersea explosions as well as anti-constitutional sabotage, the office of the Public Prosecutor General in Karlsruhe said.

The suspect is said to be part of a group of people who planted explosive devices on the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines near the Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea.

"The accused was presumably one of the coordinators of the operation," the federal prosecutor's office said.

He is set to be extradited to Germany, prosecutors said, noting that the operation was conducted in cooperation with international police.

Report: Suspect arrested while on holiday

The Italian news agency ANSA reported that the man, 49, had been on holiday with his family on the Adriatic coast for several days when he was arrested in the early hours of Thursday in the municipality of San Clemente, located inland from the popular seaside resort of Rimini.

During a routine check, it was discovered that he was the man wanted across Europe, ANSA reported.

There was no immediate confirmation from official sources in response to a dpa inquiry.

The suspect was then taken to prison. The Court of Appeal in the northern Italian city of Bologna must decide on whether to execute the existing European arrest warrant.

Pipeline damage months after Russia's invasion of Ukraine

Shortly after the explosions in September 2022, four leaks were discovered in three of the four pipeline sections.

Nord Stream 1 had previously been used to supply Germany with Russian gas, while Nord Stream 2 was never put into operation following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

After the damage was discovered, questions quickly arose as to how the perpetrators managed to place the explosives on the pipelines underwater.

Experts speculated that professional divers might have been involved in attaching the devices in several locations.

German prosecutors said on Thursday that the suspect and an accomplice used a sailboat for the sabotage, which set off from the north-eastern German city of Rostock.

The vessel was rented from a German company via intermediaries using fake documents, it said.

Investigations were launched in a number of countries bordering the Baltic Sea, but authorities in Sweden and Denmark have since closed their cases.