Three Ukrainian men have been arrested in Germany and Switzerland for planning acts of sabotage against infrastructure in Europe on behalf of Russia, the German authorities said Wednesday.
The federal prosecutor’s office in Berlin said it was investigating the three men, who were arrested over the past five days, for a plan to send incendiary and explosive devices in parcels to addresses in Ukraine. None have been charged.
The aim, the prosecutor said in a statement, appeared to be part of a plot to damage logistical infrastructure for commercial freight. The statement did not provide further details about possible targets.
One of the men, identified only as Vladyslav T. in accordance with Germany’s strict privacy rules, posted two test packages in Cologne containing GPS transmitters in order to trace the route of the packages to Ukraine, the prosecutor said.
Another man, Yevhen B., who was arrested Tuesday in Switzerland and will be extradited to Germany, directed that action, the prosecutor said. A third man, Daniil B., delivered the GPS transmitters and other items for the test packages, it said.
Authorities are treating the men as foreign agents, and believe they had been directed by Russian state actors, the prosecutor said.
Last year, a package exploded at a DHL hub at the airport in Leipzig, in what Western intelligence officials believe was a test run for a plot coordinated by Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU. The fire in Leipzig was followed by a similar fire at a DHL warehouse in Birmingham, England, and at a transport company near Warsaw.
A Romanian national has since been detained by British police in connection with those fires.
Poland has also accused Russia of being behind a fire that wiped out 1,400 small businesses when a shopping mall in Warsaw was almost completely destroyed in May of last year. On Sunday, Prime Minister Donald Tusk of Poland accused Russia of being behind the blaze.
“We now know for sure that the great fire of the Marywilska shopping center in Warsaw was caused by arson ordered by the Russian special services,” he wrote on X.
The arrests come after several official warnings that Germany has become the target of Russian hybrid attacks. Last year, the authorities charged three Russian-German dual citizens who they believe were hired to carry out acts of sabotage on industrial and military sites. The military has also reported foreign drones flying over training sites where Ukrainian soldiers are being trained.
The issue of Russian sabotage in Germany even made it into Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s inaugural speech to lawmakers on Wednesday.
“Look at the espionage and sabotage and the systematic disinformation of our population — this is overwhelmingly the work of the Russian government and its helpers, including here,” he said.
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