BERLIN/MILAN: A Ukrainian man was arrested at a holiday bungalow in Italy on Thursday on suspicion of coordinating attacks on three Nord Stream gas pipelines in 2022, marking a breakthrough in an episode that sharpened tensions between Russia and the West.
Described by both Moscow and the West as an act of sabotage, the explosions largely severed Russian gas supplies to Europe, prompting a major escalation in the Ukraine conflict and squeezing energy supplies on the continent. No one has taken responsibility for the blasts and Ukraine has denied any role. The arrest comes just as Kyiv is engaged in fraught diplomatic discussions with the United States over how to end the war in Ukraine without giving away major concessions and swathes of its own territory to Russia.
“Politically we are firmly on Ukraine’s side and will continue to do so,” said Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig when asked if the arrest would affect Berlin’s ties to Kyiv. “What is important for me is that Germany is a country of laws and crimes in our jurisdiction are fully investigated.”
An official in the Ukrainian president’s office said he could not comment as it was not clear who had been arrested. The official reiterated Ukraine’s denial of any role in the blasts.
The suspect, identified only as Serhii K. under German privacy laws, was part of a group of people who planted devices on the pipelines near the Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea, a statement from the prosecutor’s office said.
He and his accomplices had set off from Rostock on Germany’s northeastern coast in a sailing yacht to carry out the attack, it said. The vessel had been rented from a German company with the help of forged identity documents via middlemen, it added.
Authorities acted on a European arrest warrant for the suspect, who faces charges of collusion to cause an explosion, anti-constitutional sabotage and destruction of important structures.
Carabinieri officers arrested him overnight in San Clemente in the province of Rimini on Italy’s Adriatic coast, where he was supposed to spend a few days with his family.
“Once his presence had been verified, the Carabinieri surrounded the bungalow and launched a raid, during which the man surrendered without resistance,” a statement by the Carabinieri said, adding the suspect was 49 years old.
A police official told Reuters the suspect was arrested because, when providing documents at a hotel check-in, an alert flagging he was wanted popped up at the police headquarters, which dispatched a Carabinieri police patrol.
In September 2022, one of the two lines of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline was damaged by mysterious blasts, along with both lines of Nord Stream 1 that carried Russian gas to Europe.
Moscow, without providing evidence, blamed Western sabotage for the blasts, which cut off most Russian gas supplies to the lucrative European market. The US denied having anything to do with the attacks.
Denmark and Sweden closed their investigations in February 2024, leaving Germany as the only country continuing to pursue the case.
The Washington Post and Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine have previously said the team that carried out the attack was put together by a former Ukrainian intelligence officer, who has denied involvement.
In January 2023, Germany raided a ship that it said may have been used to transport explosives and told the United Nations it believed trained divers could have attached devices to the pipelines at about 70 to 80 meters deep.
The boat, leased in Germany via a Poland-registered company, contained traces of octogen, the same explosive that was found at the underwater blast sites, according to the investigations by Germany, Denmark and Sweden.
German media reported last year that Germany had issued a European arrest warrant against a Ukrainian diving instructor who allegedly was part of the team that blew up the pipelines.
Citing unnamed sources, several outlets reported that German investigators believed the man, last known to have lived in Poland, was one of the divers who planted explosive devices on the pipelines.
Successive Ukrainian governments had seen the pipelines as a symbol of, and vehicle for, Russia’s hold over European energy supplies that Kyiv argued made it hard to act against Moscow ever since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, triggering Europe’s deadliest conflict in 80 years, in which analysts say more than 1 million people have been killed or injured.
Ukrainian man arrested over Nord Stream pipeline attacks
https://arab.news/2bj6d
Ukrainian man arrested over Nord Stream pipeline attacks
- Suspect arrested while holidaying with family on Adriatic coast in Italy
- Explosions on three pipelines in 2022 largely severed Russian gas supplies to Europe
Volcanic eruptions may have brought Black Death to Europe, say new study
- Study says volcanic eruptions in 1345 caused temperatures to drop, leading to crop failure and causing famine
- This led Italy to have ships bring grain from central Asia, where the bubonic plague is thought to have first emerged
- The plague killed tens of millions of people and wiped out up to 60 percent of the population in parts of Europe
PARIS: Previously unknown volcanic eruptions may have kicked off an unlikely series of events that brought the Black Death — the most devastating pandemic in human history — to the shores of medieval Europe, new research has revealed.
The outbreak of bubonic plague known as the Black Death killed tens of millions and wiped out up to 60 percent of the population in parts of Europe during the mid-14th century.
How it came to Europe — and why it spread so quickly on such a massive scale — have long been debated by historians and scientists.
Now two researchers studying tree rings have suggested that a volcanic eruption may have been the first domino to fall.
By analizing the tree rings from the Pyrenees mountain range in Spain, the pair established that southern Europe had unusually cold and wet summers from 1345 to 1347.
Comparing climate data with written accounts from the time, the researchers demonstrated that temperatures likely dropped because there was less sunlight following one or more volcanic eruptions in 1345.
The change in climate ruined harvests, leading to failed crops and the beginnings of famine.
Fortunately — or so it seemed — “powerful Italian city states had established long-distance trade routes across the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, allowing them to activate a highly efficient system to prevent starvation,” said Martin Bauch, a historian at Germany’s Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe.
“But ultimately, these would inadvertently lead to a far bigger catastrophe,” he said in a statement.
Deadly stowaways
The city states of Venice, Genoa and Pisa had ships bring grain from the Mongols of the Golden Horde in central Asia, which is where the plague is thought to have first emerged.
Previous research has suggested that these grain ships brought along unwelcome passengers: rats carrying fleas infected with Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes plague.
Between 25 and 50 million people are estimated to have died over the next six years.
While the story encompasses natural, demographic, economic and political events in the area, it was ultimately the previously unidentified volcanic eruption that paved the way for one of history’s greatest disasters, the researchers argued.
“Although the coincidence of factors that contributed to the Black Death seems rare, the probability of zoonotic diseases emerging under climate change and translating into pandemics is likely to increase in a globalized world,” study co-author Ulf Buentgen of Cambridge University in the UK said in a statement.
“This is especially relevant given our recent experiences with Covid-19.”
The study was published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment on Thursday.
