The German armed forces have for the first time rated the threat of Russian sabotage against their soldiers and military sites as "significant". This is the second highest level on the Bundeswehr's internal threat assessment scale, Reuters reports, reports News.bg.
A spokesman for the German Defense Ministry confirmed that the armed forces generally face a significant risk of sabotage. The reassessment of the threat was carried out after the discovery in September of a crashed drone carrying a box of high explosives near the Wunstorf airbase in the state of Lower Saxony.
An internal document, which has been seen by German media outlets WDR and Süddeutsche Zeitung, indicates that Russia has crossed a previously anticipated “red line“ of hostile actions against Germany and the Bundeswehr. These include actions with kinetic and/or lethal effects, including the use of weaponized drones.
According to the document, the drone found near “Wunstorf“ bears similarities to the drone equipped with explosives used in a failed attack attempt on Leipzig/Halle airport in August. However, there is a significant difference in the alleged targets of the two incidents.
While the attack in Leipzig, according to German authorities, was directed against civilian cargo planes, investigators believe that the drone near “Wunstorf“ was intended to strike Bundeswehr aircraft.
Germany has blamed Russia for the Leipzig attack. Moscow denies organizing sabotage or hybrid attacks in Europe.
The report also describes other cases of alleged Russian intelligence activity on German territory. These include drone flights over a site of the “Arrow 3“ missile defense system in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, as well as the discovery of a hidden camera that filmed a strategically important railway station in Minden, state of Westphalia.
According to the document, cited by WDR and Süddeutsche Zeitung, intelligence services expect the situation to worsen in the short term. This means that new similar actions are possible in the near future.
The German Ministry of Defense reports that preventive measures are being taken to protect military facilities, taking into account the specifics of each individual location. These include both increased patrolling by security guards and the use of additional technical security equipment, including infrared cameras and fence monitoring systems.
The new threat assessment comes a little more than a week after German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrind said that the country was facing a “shadow war”, and called for expanding the powers of intelligence services.
Meanwhile, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz identified Russian disinformation and hybrid attacks as the biggest threat to Germany.