“Leipzig marks a new escalation on European Union soil directly attributed to Russia,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said, a day after Germany blamed Moscow for a failed drone attack on Leipzig/Halle airport.
The airport is an important NATO hub and is regularly used by Ukrainian Antonov transport aircraft. The target was a Ukrainian cargo plane on 4 August. A robot defused one explosives-laden drone, and a second is thought to have collided with another cargo plane. A third was reportedly found ten days later.
German authorities said on Tuesday that police investigations and intelligence findings had proved Russia was behind the incidents. The interior minister said the drone’s configuration, components, explosives and detonator were all known from other Russian hybrid operations. Two suspects have reportedly been identified. One is a Belarusian with a Russian passport who entered on a tourist visa. The other holds Latvian and Russian passports, arrived by plane in Berlin and flew out two days before the failed attack.
Berlin acts, Moscow answers
Germany will close the Russian consulate in Bonn and the Russian House cultural institution, which is widely suspected in Berlin of acting as a propaganda outlet for the Kremlin.
Russia rejects the accusations. Its foreign ministry said Berlin had offered no evidence. German chargé d’affaires Bernd Finke was summoned to hear Moscow’s rejection of the “entirely unfounded accusations,” and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced that the Goethe-Institut centres in Moscow, St Petersburg and Yekaterinburg would close. President Vladimir Putin called Germany’s measures a serious mistake that “clearly runs counter to the interests of the German people.” Asked whether Moscow might sever relations with Berlin, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said “maybe,” but that for now it was giving diplomacy a chance.
Critics in Germany called the response weak. Berlin says it is aiming for a more coordinated one with allies, including extended EU sanctions and entry restrictions on Russian visitors across the bloc.
EU and NATO statements
Von der Leyen described “military-grade material carried out by Russian operatives on European Union soil.” “We will not tolerate it,” she said. “We have to step up and that means being ready to respond to Russia’s recklessness faster and better.” NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, who met her in Brussels, said the alliance stood “in full solidarity with Germany.” Both warned Russia was growing more reckless and vowed to respond to a “new normal.”
Elsewhere, EU foreign ministers meeting in Wicklow, Ireland, discussed options. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said action could be taken at European level against Russia’s “shadow fleet,” and he and his Belgian and Dutch counterparts said they had summoned Russian ambassadors. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said work was under way on tighter enforcement of existing sanctions, with broad support for a visa entry ban on Russian ex-combatants and stricter visa limits on Russian tourists. Lithuania’s Kestutis Budrys said Russia evidently saw no political cost in its hybrid operations.
Rutte said Europeans face greater risk from drones and missiles crossing into eastern flank countries, and pointed to fires at factories producing defence equipment for Ukraine. Germany reported several suspected sabotage acts within 24 hours, including attacks on two electricity substations. Authorities do not yet know who was behind them. North Rhine-Westphalia Interior Minister Herbert Reul said they were investigating “sabotage directed by a foreign state and left-wing extremism.” In Poland, Prime Minister Donald Tusk called a fire at a combat drone factory in Skarżysko-Kamienna deliberate arson and sabotage.
