Three years after the attack on the Nord Stream pipelines, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced his opposition to extraditing one of the suspects detained in Poland.

During his current visit to Lithuania, Tusk said: “Certainly, charging this citizen or extraditing him to another country is not in Poland’s interest, nor does it align with a sense of integrity and justice.”

Later, the Polish Prime Minister wrote on X platform: “The problem with Nord Stream 2 is not that it was blown up, but that it was built.”

Poland had opposed the construction of this pipeline from the start, warning for years that Russia would increase Europe’s dependence on Russian gas supplies and pressure countries along the pipeline route.

Last week, Polish authorities arrested Ukrainian Volodymyr Z. in the city of Brzozów, who is wanted by Germany under a European arrest warrant. A Polish court ordered his pre-trial detention for 40 days, during which Polish authorities will review the case files from Germany, after which a Polish court will decide on his extradition to Germany.

According to the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office in Karlsruhe, the 46-year-old man is a professional diver suspected of being a member of the group that placed explosives on the Nord Stream pipelines near the island of Bornholm. He is believed to have participated in the diving operations required to carry out the sabotage.

The German public prosecutor accuses him of collective explosive detonation and committing an act of sabotage against the constitution.

The attack in autumn 2022 caused a major global uproar, as several explosions severely damaged the pipelines to the extent that gas transport through them became impossible. The explosions were recorded near the island of Bornholm, and shortly after, four leaks were discovered in three of the four pipes in the two pipelines.

Nord Stream 1 transported Russian gas to Germany, while Nord Stream 2 had not yet entered service due to the Russian war against Ukraine.