Three men caught due to suspicion of sabotage for Russia

The Federal Prosecutor’s Office had three men arrested in Cologne, Constance and Switzerland due to suspected agent activity. They are said to have agreed to several people commissioned by Russia to commit fire and explosive attacks on the transport of goods in Germany, as the Karlsruhe authority announced. The « Spiegel » had previously reported.

According to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, the Ukrainians should « send parcels in Ukraine to recipients in Ukraine with explosive or fire devices that would ignite during transport ». One of them gave up two test packages in Cologne at the end of March, in which there were GPS trackers.

Arrests in Cologne, Constance and Switzerland

According to the information, the first arrest took place on May 9 in Cologne. The second accused was arrested in Constance a day later. Both men have already been demonstrated to the investigative judge at the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe and are in custody.

The third man was arrested yesterday in the canton of Thurgau in Switzerland. According to his transfer from Switzerland, he is to be demonstrated in Karlsruhe. All three accused are Ukrainian citizens. As far as known, the two young men arrested in Germany did not follow any professional activity.

According to its own statements, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office leads to the « special meaning ». The Federal Criminal Police Office is investigating.

Experts warn of Russian sabotage

The Federal Intelligence Service (BND), the general inspector of the Bundeswehr, General Carsten Breuer, and the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BFV) have warned several times about Russian sabotage and espionage in recent months. The former BFV President, Thomas Haldenwang, who had now left, had said in autumn that in a fire in an air freight package that was presumably initiated by Russia, Germany was just barely scratched past an aircraft crash in July.

It was only thanks to a lucky coincidence that the package was still on the ground on the ground in the DHL logistics center Leipzig and not during the flight, said Haldenwang. According to DPA information, the lucky coincidence was that the further flight of the freight package from the Baltic States was delayed in Leipzig. The package had contained a fire set that ignited there and set fire to a freight container.

Increase in Russian espionage

« We are observing an aggressive acting of Russian intelligence services, » said the then head of the agency. Especially espionage and sabotage by Russian actors have increased in Germany – “both quantitatively and qualitatively”. In March, the constitutional protection then referred to several examples of alleged sabotage from the past few months – including incidents on German warships, for which the investigation was still ongoing.

The BFV Vice President, Sinan Selen, spoke of almost daily drone flights about military facilities and companies at an event on business protection. It is not about « toy drones, » he emphasizes. Selen is also reminiscent of the fire in a hall in Great Britain, in which Starlink equipment for Ukraine was stored. The BFV-Vice is sometimes difficult to assign to a foreign intelligence service in individual cases. However, the sum of such events ensures that he also believes heavy traps to believe in coincidences.