Packages in Ukraine: Russian sabotage? Three alleged agents arrested

Three Ukrainians are said to have agreed to commit attacks on goods transport in Germany. The federal prosecutor accuses you of agent work for sabotage purposes – and had it arrested. Accordingly, there is a suspicion that state bodies in Russia are behind it as the client. The case is reminiscent of the latest investigations into Russian sabotage in the form of air freight packages with fire rates.

The arrests, which have now become publicly known, are sometimes a few days ago. On Friday, a man in Cologne is said to have been temporarily arrested by police officers. According to the federal prosecutor, he was brought to Karlsruhe on the same evening and presented to the investigative judge at the Federal Court of Justice.

A day later, officials from the State Criminal Police Office in Baden-Württemberg arrested a alleged accomplice in Constance. Both men sit in custody. The third man was arrested on Tuesday in the Swiss canton of Thurgau. It will soon be transferred to Germany.

Notes on pro -Russian attitude

The alleged plan was to send packages with explosive or fire devices from Germany to recipients in Ukraine, as the federal prosecutor said. In order to explore suitable transport routes, the man arrested in Cologne gave up two test packages with GPS trackers at the end of March. He therefore received the order from one of the co -accused. The third helped to put together the package content.

It is likely that money should also have played a role as motivation. However, there is also reports on a proof of a pro -Russian attitude of the suspects and, in one case, also findings about previous contacts to Russia.

Burning air freight in Leipzig

The protection of the constitution, which is exchanging these questions with other European intelligence services, has been seeing a tendency of Russian actors, perpetrators- partly from the petty criminal milieu for months, which are carried out for money for money.

According to German security authorities, one reason for this development is that the use of professional spies for Russia through sanctions and increased vigilance of western intelligence services is difficult.

The new arrests are reminiscent of the fall of a burning air freight package in July. According to the former BFV presidents, Thomas Haldenwang, Germany was barely scratched past a plane crash at the time. It was thanks to a lucky coincidence that the package was still on the ground in the DHL logistics center Leipzig and not during the flight.

The package had contained a fire set that ignited there and set fire to a freight container. There are currently no indications for a connection between this case and the latest arrests.

But such actions are not always about violence. Sometimes the social division should simply be fired. In February it became known that the police would suspect that a series of sabotage files against cars in several federal states from Moscow were controlled. After initial investigations, it can be assumed that the Saboteurs had received money from a Russian client for their actions, it was said from security circles.

The exhaust pipe with a building foam had been clogged for the vehicles. At the scene of the crime, there were some snippets of paper with slogans that were supposed to point out the Greens – possibly an attempt to present the act as an action of radical climate activists.

Demand for diplomatic consequences

The investigation into the alleged saboters from Ukraine was still at the beginning, said NRW Interior Minister Herbert Reul. “I’m not sure if that’s all,” he said in Düsseldorf. “It is not over. There could be a second, third or fourth process.” In the current case, the danger was a serious person.

“The thwarted Russian attack plans must be a warning,” said Robin Wagener, the Eastern Europe representative of the Greens. “Putin is looking for the argument and uses the instrument box of terrorists”. The federal government must order the Russian ambassador and show “hard diplomatic consequences”.

Federal Minister of Justice Stefanie Hubig (SPD) said: “If the allegations are confirmed, it is a very serious process”. It is known that Russia is trying to “destabilize western democracies with targeted sabotage and perfidious secret service methods”. The security authorities would have this threat closely. In this case, too, it is about “defending our country against the hybrid threat from Russia”.