Prosecutors say men intended to attack German cargo transport by sending packages that would explode in transit
Three Ukrainian nationals have been arrested on suspicion of plotting parcel bomb attacks in Germany on behalf of the Russian state, according to prosecutors, reviving fears about an alleged Moscow-engineered sabotage campaign in Europe.
After the detonation of several parcels at European cargo centres last year, the German investigation drew comparisons with incidents believed to be part of a wave of hybrid attacks against western countries since
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The German federal prosecutor’s office said on Wednesday that the men, identified only as Vladyslav T, Daniil B and Yevhen B, in line with German privacy rules, had been detained in recent days in Germany and Switzerland.
They are accused of “secret agent activity for sabotage purposes” and of agreeing by, at the latest, March 2025 “with one or several persons presumed to be working for Russian state institutions” to carry out “aggravated arson” and “cause a detonation using explosives”.
The prosecutors alleged the men’s intent had been to carry out “explosives attacks on cargo transport in the Federal Republic of Germany” by shipping parcels from Germany to recipients in Ukraine carrying “explosives or incendiary devices” that would “detonate during transport”.
Vladyslav T allegedly sent two test packages containing GPS trackers in late March from Cologne, in western Germany, “to scout out suitable transport routes” on the orders of Yevhen B, who is believed to have provided the package contents via Daniil B.
The federal criminal police have been carrying out the investigation owing to its “special significance”, as is common in suspected terrorism cases. The news magazine Der Spiegel cited sources close to the investigation as saying that the plot had been at an early stage.
Regional officials said it was the test runs that had brought the plans to the attention of security authorities in North Rhine-Westphalia state. Its interior minister, Herbert Reul, said the arrests pointed to the “hybrid threat” posed by “low-level agents” working for Russian services for “little money”.
“We know that Russia is trying to destabilise western democracies by all means – including targeted sabotage and perfidious intelligence methods,” the German justice minister, Stefanie Hubig, said, adding that security authorities were “keeping a close eye on this threat”.
The chancellor, Friedrich Merz, did not mention the arrests during his first speech to parliament since taking office last week. But he condemned murders, cyber-attacks and destruction of undersea data cables across Europe “that are overwhelmingly the work of the Russian state leadership and its helpers”.
Merz called such plots “attempts to sow division” and said Germany and Europe would meet these security threats “with the greatest decisiveness, with unity and above all with defence preparedness”.
Germany is the second-largest national supplier of military aid to Ukraine after the United States and Merz has pledged his government’s unwavering support of Kyiv.
Last July, European security agencies were shaken by three separate explosions in packages sent from Lithuania, which detonated in Birmingham in the UK; Leipzig, Germany; and near Warsaw, in Poland.
All the couriers appear to have operated within the same network and transported similar content of sex toys and massage pillows.
Reuters reported that the devices were rigged to ignite using pre-set timers repurposed from inexpensive Chinese electronics typically used for tracking lost items. Their impact was intensified by tubes disguised as cosmetics, which were filled with a flammable gel containing compounds such as nitromethane.
Western security officials were quick to suspect Russian intelligence, with the incidents coming amid a series of other hostile acts.
German authorities said in October that a plane could have been downed if the devices had ignited in flight. Security officials noted the parcels were due to have been in the air when they caught fire and the delayed arrival of the aircraft had prevented a catastrophe.
The logistics firm DHL took measures to protect its network after fires at one of its warehouses in Leipzig.
When the US government became aware of the alleged plot, alarmed officials in Joe Biden’s White House reportedly contacted their Russian counterparts to demand the Kremlin put a stop to it.
Russia has denied any involvement.
Richard Moore, the head of the UK’s Secret Intelligence Service, commonly known as MI6, warned in November that Russia was waging a “staggeringly reckless campaign” of sabotage in Europe while also increasing its nuclear sabre-rattling to scare off other countries from backing Ukraine.
