Radosław Sikorski was said to have claimed that Volodymyr Z. deserved asylum and a medal, that he thought he could feel safe in Poland. All it took was a German stomping his foot, and there is no protective umbrella over him. If this is indeed the person who carried out the [damage to the Nord Stream pipelines], then he destroyed the machine financing Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, said Mateusz Kurzejewski, deputy spokesperson for Law and Justice (PiS), on TV Republika.
On Tuesday, based on a European Arrest Warrant, 46-year-old Ukrainian Volodymyr Z. was detained in the Pruszków district, suspected of participating in the Nord Stream pipeline explosion. The case concerns an investigation conducted by the German authorities.
Piotr Skiba, spokesperson for the Warsaw District Prosecutor’s Office, reported that “there is a high probability“ that the prosecution will submit a request to the court for his temporary arrest. He added that the decision on possible extradition would be made within 100 days by the court after receiving the relevant documents from the German side. According to Volodymyr Z.’s lawyer, German officers also took part in his detention.
He emphasized that the defense would act very actively in this matter.
“Whatever Ukrainian citizen may have participated in these actions, bearing in mind the war in Ukraine and the fact that the owner of this infrastructure is a Russian company that directly funds the war in Ukraine, it is difficult to consider these actions a crime,” stressed Tymoteusz Paprocki.
Volodymyr Z. had been living in Poland with his family for several years. He holds a permanent residence permit and runs a business in the construction sector.
Ukrainian media recall Sikorski’s words. Ukrainska Pravda, reporting on the detention, reminded of recent claims by Rzeczpospolita that the current head of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Radosław Sikorski, “was and still is” ready to grant asylum and award a medal to Volodymyr Z.“
“All It Took Was for a German to Stomp His Foot”
The matter also came up during a political discussion between Michał Rachoń and Mateusz Kurzejewski of Law and Justice (PiS).
Kurzejewski noted that German officers participated in the detention operation and took evidence from the case back to Germany.
Sikorski was said to have claimed that Volodymyr Z. deserved asylum and a medal, that he thought he could feel safe in Poland. All it took was a German stomping his foot, and there is no protective umbrella over him. If this is indeed the person who carried out the [damage to the Nord Stream pipelines], then he destroyed the machine financing Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, said the deputy spokesperson for Law and Justice (PiS).
Rachoń pointed out that once again this was a situation where Sikorski “speaks beautifully about fighting the Russian Federation, yet in practice this man [Volodymyr Z.] is detained and soon the court will decide whether to hand him over to [Germany].”
“This is further evidence that Radosław Sikorski uses such situations for political self-promotion,” added Kurzejewski.
The host underlined that it looked like “deliberately misleading a person,” when just days earlier he was spoken of as a hero, and then was detained with the participation of German services.