Three violent actions in 48 hours have put Germany on alert, especially as they coincide with the federal Government’s accusation against Russia, which it pointed to as being behind hybrid attacks in the country. An electrical substation in the State of Brandenburg was attacked on Tuesday with explosives and homemade rockets. The same day that the German Foreign and Interior Ministers pointed to Moscow as responsible for the failed drone bomb offensive at Leipzig airport on August 4. Less than 24 hours later, this Wednesday, another electrical substation was attacked and an explosion occurred at a train station.
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“Whoever is behind this is attacking our country,” said Herbert Reul, Interior Minister of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, this Wednesday. Reul held a press conference after sabotage occurred at an electrical substation in the Cologne region, which caused temporary power outages. The police confirmed that the facilities were damaged and that homemade rockets were found in the area. The police added that the attack caused a short circuit that temporarily disabled the Niederaussem and Neurath power plants.
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Homemade rockets were also identified the previous day at the Brandenburg substation. The goal, according to electric companies, was to cause a blackout at the Jänschwalde thermal power plant, the largest in the land, which depends on the attacked substation.
The police have not yet linked this incident with the one in Cologne, but the head of the criminal police of North Rhine-Westphalia, Michael Esser, told the Bild newspaper that the two sabotages are practically identical. “These are not isolated cases, they must be handled by intelligence services,” said the Minister of Economy of North Rhine-Westphalia, Mona Neubaur.
Reul indicated that the authorities are considering two options: that the attack in Cologne was carried out by “a foreign actor” or by some radical left group. Berlin already suffered a blackout in January that left 50,000 homes without power due to sabotage by the far-left terrorist organization Vulkangruppe.
The third violent act in the last 48 hours was the explosion that occurred early Wednesday at the Augsburg train station in Bavaria. The device (some witnesses identified it as a grenade although the police did not confirm) caused two minor injuries and damage to homes and businesses. This incident is not, for the moment, linked to the attacks on the electrical substations in Brandenburg and Cologne.
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Suspects in Leipzig
The authorship of these incidents is unknown, but where Berlin has no doubts is in the failed attack on August 4 against Ukrainian cargo planes parked at Leipzig airport. Russia is behind an operation in which at least two drones with explosive payloads were used. The possible presence of a third drone is not ruled out. One of the drones armed with explosives was found just meters from a transport plane of the Ukrainian public company Antonov. A detonator error prevented the device from destroying the aircraft and causing greater damage. Another drone loaded with explosives was discovered on August 14 in the airport perimeter.
The police have two suspects in their sights, according to reports this Wednesday by the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper and the public broadcasters NDR and WDR. One is a Latvian citizen born in Russia who reportedly traveled to Saxony at the end of July to organize logistics and train the drone pilots. This person would be in contact with Russian security services.
The second suspect is a Belarusian citizen with a Russian passport who entered the European Union through Italy with a tourist visa. His identity was reportedly confirmed, according to the cited media, because his DNA was identified on some objects used in the attack: specifically, on one of the drones, on an antenna tied to a tree to amplify the drone signals, and on a container with explosives. Authorities had his DNA because he had already been arrested in Finland and Lithuania. The suspects are no longer in European Union territory, according to the German public television ARD.
German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said on Tuesday that the modus operandi and equipment used in Leipzig were the same as in other Russian attacks against Ukrainian interests. Dobrindt did not provide concrete evidence such as the presence of the two suspects at the scene.
German intelligence services also revealed this August that they were investigating Russian security services as responsible for a cache of firearms hidden in a Berlin forest and discovered in 2025. According to the investigation, this weaponry could be used to attack Ukrainian interests in Germany.
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