President of Poland Karol Navrotsky at a press conference with the President of Lithuania Gitanas Nausėda, Vilnius, October 20, 2025. Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland/Facebook
The President of Poland, Karol Nawrocki, stressed during a press conference in Vilnius that Germany might not have had a fair judicial investigation into Volodymyr Zhuravlov, who is suspected of sabotaging the Nord Stream gas pipeline. His statement became one of the main focal points of discussions on Ukrainian-Polish-German security and justice issues.
“We have a ruling by an independent Polish court (…) And it is very good that Mr. Zhuravlov remains in Poland,” the Polish president replied to journalists’ questions. – I truly agree that on the German side he might not have faced a fair trial.”
– The President of Poland Karol Nawrocki
According to Nawrocki, the Nord Stream project was meant to benefit Germany while delivering Russia billions in profits, which, in the opinion of the author of the statements, influenced the overall dynamics of conflicts in the region.
“you cannot punish a citizen of Ukraine for the fact that when his country is being destroyed by [the leader of the Kremlin] Vladimir Putin, he participates in such actions”
– Karol Nawrocki
“Considering the interests of the German state in the context of Nord Stream 2 one can suppose that – indeed, this was noted in part of the verdict – that business arguments or economic arguments would have outweighed common sense”
– Karol Nawrocki
Also commenting on the Polish court’s decision was Tomasz Siemoniak, a coordinator of the security services and a minister, who on Polskie Radio called the ruling regarding Zhuravlov correct. According to him, Poland demonstrates that it is a rule-of-law state, and that the judge considered the case more broadly from a moral point of view.
“Here we have a clear assessment of Nord Stream as such and of this German-Russian cooperation, which was aimed against Poland, the Central and Eastern European countries, and we spoke about this well before the war”
– Tomasz Siemoniak
According to socio-political developments, on September 30 a Ukrainian national was detained in Poland, whom Germany suspects of involvement in the Nord Stream explosion. The detention occurred in Pruszków, after which the suspect fell under the jurisdiction of the Warsaw District Prosecutor’s Office. On October 1, the Warsaw District Court chose a preventive measure in the form of seven days’ temporary detention, and on October 6 the term was extended by another 40 days. On October 17, the Polish court denied Germany’s extradition request and ordered the immediate release of the accused from custody; the prosecutor’s office does not plan to appeal the decision.