Earlier this month locals in Zagreb noticed something odd outside an art deco building. Sandbags and barricades appeared in front of the Esplanade hotel, along with a film crew and extras sporting Ukrainian military uniforms. Soon afterwards the actors Sean Penn and Adrien Brody were spotted on the set in the Croatian capital, together with Doug Liman, the Hollywood director of the Jason Bourne movies.
Liman had come to shoot his latest fictional political thriller. Its subject: the ۲۰۲۲ Nord Stream explosions, in which a team of Ukrainian divers allegedly blew up a pipeline supplying Russian oil to Germany. One of the chief suspects, Volodymyr Zhuravlev, had twice eluded the Germany authorities: once allegedly slipping out of Poland in the boot of a diplomatic car, and on another occasion freed by a court.
On Wednesday, however, Zhuravlev’s luck ran out. He was detained in the Croatian city of Pula – where, in an incredible meta-twist, German media said he had been acting as a consultant on Liman’s movie, Snake Island, which dramatically reconstructs Zhuravlev’s alleged act of watery sabotage.
Photos in Croatian newspapers showed two police officers leading Zhuravlev away, a middle-aged figure in a blue T-shirt and brown cap. In an interview before the Ukrainian’s extraordinary arrest, Liman confirmed parts of the movie would be shot in Pula, an ancient Roman port on the Adriatic coast, known for its clean, crystal clear sea. “It’s a little hot [in Zagreb]. I’m excited to be by the water,” he told a TV crew.
Who tipped off the authorities, and what exactly Zhuravlev was doing in Croatia, is unclear, and the film’s production company has yet to issue an explanation. German federal prosecutors said local police forces detained him on a European arrest warrant. They described Zhuravlev as a professional and experienced scuba diver, and said he was part of a group led by another Ukrainian, Serhii K, who was extradited in ۲۰۲۵ to Germany from Italy. Both had links to Ukrainian state entities, the prosecutors suggested, and had planted explosives on behalf of their shadowy intelligence bosses.
The two Ukrainian divers have denied any involvement in the undersea blasts, which took place off the Danish island of Bornholm. The Ukrainian government said it had nothing to do with the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines and said it wanted to establish the “true circumstances” of the incident, noting it happened amid Russia’s “aggressive war against Ukraine”.
Zhuravlev’s lawyers will now seek to stop their client from being sent to Germany, where he is likely to face a lengthy prison sentence if convicted.
But if he stays in Croatia, his Polish defence lawyer, Tymoteusz Paprocki, said the case will once again be “precedent-setting” – because a Croatian court will effectively hear a matter already decided in Poland, another EU member state.
Last year a Polish court ruled against executing a European arrest warrant issued by Germany, arguing that Germany had no jurisdiction and that the destruction of Nord Stream could be seen as a justified action by Ukraine as part of a defensive war. Most of the billions used by the Kremlin to fund its vast army come from oil exports.
The ruling aligned with Poland’s longstanding opposition to the pipeline project, seen as a symbol of Berlin’s overly-close relations with Russia under successive German chancellors. The Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, has publicly said that “the problem with Nord Stream ۲ is not that it was blown up. The problem is that it was built.”
Paprocki said: “It’ll be a case against the same person, with the same facts, the same relevant laws and European conventions, and the same European Arrest Warrant, brought by the same country, Germany.
“There will be a question of whether there is a consistent line from the courts, or if every country can apply international law differently.”
He called it “a test for the functioning of European law.”
Paprocki said he had no detailed information about the arrest, but confirmed Zhuravlev was not in Croatia on holiday – “He must have had serious and important reasons” to go there, he added, without offering details – and the newspaper Die Welt said there were indications Zhuravlev was a part of the production.
Published photos in Croatian media from the set of Snake Island showed Brody in front of the luxury Esplanade hotel, talking into his mobile phone, with Liman giving him instructions. Penn was not on set but was reportedly seen inside the historic building, which is located in Mihanovićeva Street in the centre of Zagreb.
Polish and German media have reported extensively on Zhuravlev’s remarkable and twisting story. In ۲۰۲۴ he evaded arrest in Poland, fleeing back to Ukraine. Polish authorities blamed Germany for administrative errors when logging him into the international wanted database, which allowed him to cross the border despite an active arrest warrant. The German magazine Der Spiegel alleged the suspect was helped to escape by a Ukrainian military attache stationed in Warsaw, who hid the suspect in the boot of a diplomatic car and whisked him across the border.
