By Tilman Blasshofer and Timm Reichert
STUTTGART, Germany, Aug 18 (Reuters) – A German court convicted a Ukrainian man on Tuesday over what prosecutors described as a plot linked to Russian intelligence to detonate parcels in Europe designed to cause damage and undermine public confidence in security.
Three Ukrainians were involved in sending two packages with GPS trackers and spare auto parts from Germany to Ukraine using a Ukrainian parcel service in an operation initiated by an unnamed Russian state entity, the Higher Regional Court in the southwestern city of Stuttgart said in a statement.
For the Russian organisers of the plot, these shipments were designed to scope out potential opportunities for future acts of sabotage, the court said.
A 30-year-old was sentenced to one year and three months in prison for acting as an agent for the purposes of sabotage, but will not be jailed as he is considered to have served his sentence in pre-trial detention. The two other defendants were acquitted due to a lack of evidence that they were knowingly involved in a plot to commit such attacks.
The Russian embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
EUROPE SAYS RUSSIA WAGING ‘HYBRID WAR’
European governments have accused Moscow of a sustained campaign of sabotage attacks as part of a “hybrid war” against countries that supported Ukraine after Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. Russia has repeatedly called such allegations groundless.
The 30-year-old “intentionally participated in scouting potential sabotage targets for a Russian state entity”, the court said.
“At the behest of an acquaintance from Russian-occupied Mariupol, he organised the shipment of GPS trackers that transmitted location data during transit from Germany to Ukraine.”
Mariupol, a Ukrainian port city on the Sea of Azov, was devastated in the early months of the war and fell to Russia in May 2022, though it has since become a target for Ukrainian drone strikes.
“Among other things, the fact that the convicted defendant’s actions were carried out well in advance of the actual execution of sabotage was taken into account when determining the sentence,” court spokesperson Lars Kemner told reporters.
Martin Heising, a lawyer for one of the acquitted defendants, said his client could face negative consequences if he returned to Ukraine after a politically sensitive trial.
“The Federal Prosecutor’s Office has filed charges against my client that were truly on very thin ice, knowing full well that this will likely ruin his future in Ukraine for the rest of his life. That’s the worst part,” he said.
Germany and other European countries have repeatedly pointed the finger at Moscow in other instances.
In a previous case, European security officials suspect Russia was behind a series of exploding parcels that were shipped from Lithuania in 2024 and detonated in Germany, Poland and Britain. Moscow has always denied allegations that it was involved in any such operation.
Earlier this month, in Germany, officials found a drone carrying explosives at Leipzig/Halle Airport. German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt called it a hybrid attack but did not assign blame. Russia has dismissed suggestions by German politicians and media that it could be responsible.
Dobrindt returned to this theme on Tuesday as he opened a new drone centre in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt.
“The aim of these hybrid attacks is to defeat us politically and socially. That is the underlying concept: hybrid threats acting as a driver for the erosion of public trust in the state,” he said.
“What we are witnessing today is the shadow war of the 21st century,” he added.
(Reporting by Tilman Blasshofer, Timm Reichert, Markus Wacket and Alexander Ratz; writing by Matthias Williams; editing by Alison Williams, William Maclean)
Comments