German authorities say they’ve arrested two people accused of espionage for Russia. The Federal Public Prosecutor General of Karlsruhe released a statement on Thursday, accusing the suspects, who are German-Russian nationals, of studying potential assault targets, including U.S. military facilities in Germany.
The arrests, made by police in the Bavarian town of Bayreuth, come amid rising tensions between Russia and the West, more than two years after President Vladimir Putin authorized Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
Germany accuses the alleged spies of attempting to undermine Germany’s military assistance to Ukraine.
Dieter S. and Alexander J., identified by the German prosecutor, reportedly have ties to a Russian intelligence service and are accused of gathering information about prospective sabotage targets.
Dieter S. is accused of communicating with a person associated with a Russian secret service since October 2023, discussing strategies to target German military infrastructure and industrial facilities. He apparently visited some of the targeted locations in person, taking photos and recordings.
According to the prosecutor, the detainees also identified potential targets for strikes, such as US Army bases in Germany.
Dieter S. allegedly showed a willingness to carry out explosive and arson attacks against military and industrial locations in Germany. The planning entailed gathering information on probable targets, with Alexander J. assisting since March 2024, and sharing it with his Russian source.
Authorities searched the suspects’ residences and businesses. Dieter S. has been granted an extra arrest warrant on suspicion of belonging to the foreign terrorist group DPR, the Russian-backed de facto authority in the occupied eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk, known as the Donetsk People’s Republic.
According to Der Spiegel, the two suspects were spying on military installations, including US military facilities in Grafenwoehr, Bavaria. Grabfenwoehr is an important training center where US forces have assisted in training Ukrainian soldiers to utilize US-made Abrams tanks.
In response to the incident on Thursday, Germany summoned the Russian ambassador in Berlin to the Federal Foreign Office, which the Russian Embassy described as a provocation, dismissing the spying charges as “absurd and ridiculous.”
“We consider this demarche an outright provocation aimed at inciting the already rampant spy mania in Germany, increasing the degree of anti-Russian sentiment, further destroying Russian-German relations, justifying the course of the German authorities towards unbridled militarization, and pumping Ukraine up with weapons and military equipment,” the Russian Embassy said in a statement that was circulated on Facebook and other social networks. The Russian Embassy presented no evidence indicating the detainees’ plans or their possible connections with Russian structures.
The arrests raised concerns about the scope of Russian espionage activities in Germany. German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser called the suspected espionage a “particularly serious case” and reiterated Germany’s determination to support Ukraine despite intimidation tactics.
Political leaders have called for a firm response to the threat posed by Russian operatives operating in Germany. Konstantin von Notz, the Green Party deputy leader and head of the intelligence control committee in the Bundestag, Germany’s parliament, believes a reply is necessary if the claims prove genuine.
The arrests in Bavaria paralleled events in Poland in March 2023, when authorities said they disrupted a Russian spy network attempting to derail Western weaponry sales to Ukraine.
Among the suspects were people with criminal records and migrants from Eastern Ukraine were among the suspects. Polish officials claimed that the Russian military intelligence service GRU had pushed the men to install cameras along railway lines used to transport guns and other supplies to Ukraine. Another plot looked to include acts of sabotage, such as train derailments by Russian spies.
Since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Bundeswehr has received frequent reports of suspicious drone activity over barracks where Ukrainian soldiers train in the country, and the frequency of these instances has increased dramatically.
There were 172 reports of suspected drones flying around barracks in 2022, according to military officials. In 2023, there were 446 recorded sightings.
