Man arrested over Nord Stream bombing was working as consultant on film about the same incident
Ukrainian Volodymyr Zhuravlev, a key suspect in the 2022 Nord Stream pipeline explosions, was arrested in Croatia while reportedly serving as a consultant on Doug Liman's film dramatising the same act of sabotage. He was detained in Pula on a European arrest warrant, with the movie also being filmed in Zagreb starring Sean Penn and Adrien Brody.
Ukrainian citizen Volodymyr Zhuravlev, a chief suspect in the 2022 Nord Stream pipeline explosions, was arrested on Wednesday in the Croatian city of Pula on a European arrest warrant issued by Germany. Photos published by Croatian media showed two police officers leading him away in a blue T-shirt and brown cap.
In a striking twist, German media reported that Zhuravlev had been working as a consultant on Snake Island, a fictional political thriller directed by Doug Liman that dramatises the very sabotage he is accused of. Filming for the movie, starring Sean Penn and Adrien Brody, had begun in Zagreb outside the Esplanade hotel, complete with sandbags, barricades and extras in Ukrainian military uniforms. Liman had confirmed in an interview shortly before the arrest that part of the shoot would move to Pula, on Croatia's Adriatic coast.
German federal prosecutors described Zhuravlev as an experienced professional scuba diver who was part of a group led by another Ukrainian, Serhii K, extradited to Germany from Italy in 2025. Prosecutors said both men had links to Ukrainian state entities and had allegedly planted the explosives that destroyed the pipelines off Denmark's Bornholm island. Both divers deny any involvement, and Ukraine's government has said it had nothing to do with the sabotage.
Zhuravlev's lawyers are now seeking to prevent his extradition to Germany, where he would likely face a lengthy prison sentence. His Polish defence lawyer, Tymoteusz Paprocki, noted that a Croatian court would effectively be reconsidering a matter a Polish court already ruled on last year, when it refused to execute a similar German arrest warrant on the grounds that Germany lacked jurisdiction and that destroying Nord Stream could be seen as a justified act within Ukraine's defensive war. Paprocki called the Croatian case a potential test of whether EU states apply international law consistently. Zhuravlev had previously evaded arrest in Poland in 2024, reportedly fleeing to Ukraine hidden in a diplomatic car's boot with the alleged help of a Ukrainian military attache.
