The Bundeswehr has elevated the risk level for Russian sabotage within Germany to warn that attacks may occur in the near future and target wide-ranging military assets. The army’s internal threat assessment now classifies the risk as “significant,” the second-highest level on its scale, after a crashed drone carrying explosives was found in mid-September just meters from an aircraft at Wunstorf airbase in Lower Saxony. Technical analysis by the Federal Criminal Police Office suggests the device may have been there for two years and was likely intended for military aircraft rather than civilian targets.
This alert follows U.S. intelligence findings that Vladimir Putin personally ordered a campaign of sabotage across NATO countries to disrupt European support for Ukraine. The operation began with a failed drone attack on a military aid freighter at Leipzig-Halle Airport in August and has since expanded to commercial shipping and communications infrastructure. Aides to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz noted that Berlin would have considered invoking NATO’s Article 5 collective-defense clause had the Leipzig attack caused mass casualties.