German-Russian nationals arrested on suspicion of plotting sabotage attacks
Two German-Russian nationals have been arrested in southern Germany on suspicion of plotting sabotage attacks, including on US military facilities, in what officials called a serious effort to undermine military support for Ukraine.
The men, named as Dieter S and Alexander J, are suspected of operating as Russian spies on behalf of the Kremlin, according to German media sources. Prosecutors said only that the men were accused of working for a foreign secret service.
Separately, Polish and Ukrainian prosecutors said a Polish man had been arrested on suspicion of spying for Russia in an alleged plot to assassinate Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
The man, identified only as Pawel K, was accused of seeking contact with Russian military intelligence to pass on detailed information about the Rzeszów-Jasionka airport in south-eastern Poland, which is the gateway for international military and humanitarian supplies for Ukraine. Zelenskiy passes through the airport on his trips abroad.
In Germany, the prosecutor’s office said the suspects were arrested on Wednesday in the city of Bayreuth. The accused are under suspicion of “having worked for a foreign secret service in a particularly serious incident”. Dieter S, 39, is also charged with “conspiring to cause an explosive attack and arson, acting as an agent for sabotage purposes and security-endangering collection of intelligence on military installations”.
Dieter S had been in contact with a member of the Russian secret services and had been developing sabotage plans in Germany since October 2023, prosecutors said yesterday.
Germany’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, said: “The suspicion that Putin is recruiting agents from us to carry out attacks on German soil is extremely serious. We will not allow Putin to bring his terror to Germany.”
Baerbock has summoned Russia’s ambassador to Berlin, Sergei Nechayev, for an explanation, a move that happened with unusual haste, suggesting authorities had unequivocal proof.
The Kremlin said it knew nothing about the circumstances surrounding the men’s arrests.
According to prosecutors, Dieter S declared his readiness to carry out explosive and arson attacks on military infrastructure and industrial sites, with the explicit intention “to undermine the military support provided by Germany to Ukraine against the Russian war of aggression”.
He focused his attention on German and US military sites, according to the evidence gathered by investigators, which includes videos and photographs.
According to Der Spiegel, the US military site Grafenwöhr in Bavaria, southern Germany, was his main focal point. This is one of the main sites where the US military has been training Ukrainian troops, in particular in the battlefield operation of Abrams tanks.
The prosecutors said there was also a strong suspicion that Dieter S had worked in eastern Ukraine between December 2014 and September 2016 as a fighter for an armed unit of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic and had acquired a firearm for this purpose.
The prosecutors described the unit as a pro-Russian association that “from spring 2014, claimed control over the Ukrainian administrative district of Donetsk with the aim of secession from Ukraine and engaged in intensive clashes with the Ukrainian armed forces. The association repeatedly used violence against the civilian population.”
Alexander J, 37 and also a GermanRussian citizen, is suspected of supporting Dieter S from March 2024 at the latest. He is accused of espionage on behalf of a foreign service.
Dieter S was brought before judges at Germany’s federal court of justice in Karlsruhe on Wednesday and remanded in to custody. Alexander J was brought before judges yesterday, prosecutors confirmed.
Germany’s interior minister, Nancy Faeser, said: “Our security authorities have prevented potential explosive attacks intended to strike at and undermine our military help for Ukraine.”
Faeser said Germany would not be cowed. “We will continue to hugely support Ukraine and will not let ourselves be intimidated,” she said.
The justice minister Marco Buschmann called the arrests an “investigative success in the fight against Putin’s sabotage and espionage network”.
They follow several Russian spy incidents in Germany in recent years.
‘We must react to this threat defensively and determnin d edly’
Marco Buschmann German justice minister