Germany blames Russia for drone attack on Leipzig airport

By Ivana Kottasová, Sebastian Shukla, CNN

(CNN) — Germany has accused Russia of being responsible for the drone attack targeting Leipzig airport last month, and announced a slew of new measures against Moscow.

“We are not at war, but we are a daily target of hybrid attacks,” Germany’s interior minister Alexander Dobrindt told reporters on Tuesday, as he raised the country’s threat level assessment from “general” to “high”.

Germany’s foreign minister Johann Wadephul also ordered the closure of the Russian consulate in Bonn, and the Russian House, a cultural center, in Berlin. Germany is also tightening controls Russians entering the country.

Ursula von der Leyen, president of the EU’s executive arm, said European foreign ministers would announce a “clear response” to Russia including “additional sanctions” later this week.

The US previously assessed that an explosive-laden drone discovered at the airport in east Germany belonged to a Russian intelligence service, a US defense official in Europe told CNN.

The incident caused major disruptions and sparked security concerns across Europe. According to German authorities at the time, the drone was discovered inside a secure area of the Leipzig/Halle Airport overnight on August 4 near the airport’s south runway, where cargo flights operate.

A bomb disposal robot was deployed and the detonator attached to the drone was removed. Images of the scene showed the robot close to a Ukrainian cargo plane. The US defense official told CNN the drone was carrying military-grade explosives.

Later on August 5, a second flying object hit a cargo plane near the airport, causing minor damage. The aircraft later landed safely in Hannover.

Russia said the suggestion it was responsible for the ​drone attack was absurd. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday night accused Germany of planting evidence in order to blame Moscow, without offering any evidence for such allegations, according to Reuters.

Moscow’s ambassador to Germany, Sergey Nechayev, earlier accused Berlin of an “unprecedented escalation of Russian-German relations.” He described the accusations as “unsubstantiated, absurd, and irrational,” and warned of retaliatory measures.

NATO chief Mark Rutte welcomed the measures announced by Germany, said the alliance’s commitment to Ukraine remained “unwavering,” and reiterated that “NATO will continue to strengthen our ability to deter and defend all Allies against any threat – including malign actions like those seen in Leipzig.”

German media also recently reported that a third drone was found in a field near the airport about a week after incidents, prompting speculation that multiple drones were meant to be used in the attack. The German Federal Prosecutor’s Office, which is handling the case, declined to comment when contacted by CNN, citing an ongoing investigation.

Leipzig/Halle, one of the busiest cargo airports in Europe, has been the base for Ukraine’s Antonov Airlines cargo airline since Russia destroyed its home base in the town of Hostomel, northwest of Kyiv, in the early days of their full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The explosives-laden drone was found near one of the Ukrainian aircraft at the airport.

Dobrindt said at the time that the incident represented a serious escalation. “Drone sightings, drone threats including in a hybrid context, are something we know from the past. That a drone armed with explosives is at an airport is a new threat scenario,” he said.

Hybrid warfare

Western intelligence services have repeatedly pointed fingers at Russia over a series of seemingly unrelated security incidents across Europe. These have included arson, high-profile hacks, GPS jamming as well as sabotage actions against key infrastructure, including undersea communication cables, logistics centers and railways.

The US has warned that Russia might escalate further. Recent US intelligence assessments indicate Russian President Vladimir Putin could try to test NATO’s resolve by launching a limited attack on an allied country within the next few years, according to three sources familiar with those reports.

CNN contacted the Kremlin for comment on the US intel assessment on Putin.

Power grid targeted

In a separate incident on Tuesday, German authorities said part of the country’s electricity grid was sabotaged. Police discovered “several improvised explosive devices,” including some which resembled rockets, at a substation near one of Germany’s largest power plants, a police spokeswoman told CNN.

The devices were attached to a powerline leading to the substation in Turnow-Preilack, near the border with Poland, rather than inside the facility itself, the spokeswoman added. Authorities don’t yet know who is behind the attack, but they cannot rule out a foreign power or left-wing activists, Brandenburg’s interior minister Jan Redmann told reporters Tuesday.

The perpetrators used rockets to fire a “conducting material” into the high-voltage lines, causing two short circuits, Redmann said. Authorities are searching the area and have already found at least 10 rockets, though the number is still rising, he added.

50 Hertz, which operates the electricity grid in northern and eastern Germany, confirmed there had been a brief power outage but that all lines are now operating again.

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CNN’s Fred Pleitgen, Haley Britzky, Zachary Cohen, Issy Ronald, Jennifer Hansler and Lauren Said-Moorhouse contributed to this report.