Three Ukrainian nationals were arrested in Germany and Switzerland suspected of having agreed to send packages containing explosive or incendiary devices from Germany to Ukraine, apparently at the request of people acting for Russia, German prosecutors said on Wednesday.
Men are suspected of having acted as secret agents for sabotage, as well as to accept to commit a criminal fire and to cause an explosion, federal prosecutors said in a statement.
The alleged plans corresponded to a scheme in which Western officials accused Russia and its staging agents of dozens of attacks and other incidents across Europe since the large -scale invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago.
Two of the men – identified only as Vladyslav T. and Daniil B. In accordance with the German confidentiality rules – were arrested in different parts of Germany respectively on Friday and Saturday. The third, identified as Yevhen B., was arrested on Tuesday in the northern region of Thurgau in neighboring Switzerland.
The suspects are accused of having said “or more persons suspected of acting on behalf of the Russian state agencies” around March that they were ready to carry out attacks on the transport of goods in Germany, prosecutors said. The alleged plan was that men send packages that would explode or take fire while being transported to Ukraine.
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One of the suspects, Vladyslav T., sent two “test packages” to Cologne at the end of March which contained GPS trackers to extend the possible means of transport, according to the prosecutors. He would have been responsible for doing so by Yevhen B., who is accused of having provided the contents of the plans via Daniil B.
German prosecutors did not explain more what was in the plans or the way they were sent.
Herbert Reuul, the highest head of security in the state of northern Rhine-Westphalia, where Cologne was located, said he did not think that test packages contained explosives or fuel. Among the suspects, he said: “The first impression is low -level agents – people who … are recruited for little money and who do work for the Russian state.”
In a previous case last year, western security officials suspect that Russian intelligence was at the origin of a conspiracy to put incendiary devices in packages on freight planes directed towards North America, including one who caught fire in a mail center in Germany and another who ignited in a warehouse in the United Kingdom
“We know that Russia is trying by all means to destabilize Western democracies, including with deliberate sabotage methods and treacherous intelligence,” said German justice minister Stefanie Hubig, following the last arrests.
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