Two German-Russian men have been arrested in Germany on suspicion of espionage, one of them accused of agreeing to carry out attacks on potential targets including US military facilities in hopes of sabotaging aid for Ukraine, prosecutors said yesterday.
The two, identified only as Dieter S. and Alexander J. in line with German privacy rules, were arrested on Wednesday in the city of Bayreuth, federal prosecutors said.
They said Dieter S. had been discussing possible acts of sabotage in Germany with a person linked to Russian intelligence since October last year and that the main aim was to undermine military support given by Germany to Ukraine.
Photo: Reuters
The suspect declared himself willing to carry out bombing and arson attacks on infrastructure used by the military and industrial sites in Germany, prosecutors said in a statement.
He gathered information on potential targets, including US military facilities, they said.
“The actions were intended, in particular, to undermine the military support provided from Germany to Ukraine against the Russian aggression,” prosecutors said.
The accused allegedly expressed readiness to “commit explosive and arson attacks mainly on military infrastructure and industrial sites in Germany,” they said.
Alexander J. allegedly helped him to do so starting in March at the latest, while Dieter S. scouted out some of the sites, took photographs and videos of military goods and passed the information to his intelligence contact, the statement said.
A judge on Wednesday ordered Dieter S. kept in custody pending a possible indictment.
Alexander J. was due to make a closed-doors court appearance yesterday.
Dieter S. also faces separate accusations of belonging to an armed unit of pro-Russian separatist forces in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine between December 2014 and September 2016.
German Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser called the allegations “a particularly serious case of suspected agent activity for [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s criminal regime.”
“We will continue to thwart such threat plans,” Faeser said, reiterating Germany’s steadfast support for Ukraine.
Additional reporting by AFP
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