Three Ukrainian men arrested in Germany and Switzerland for plotting Russian ‘sabotage’ bomb attacks.
German prosecutors said three Ukrainian nationals have been arrested on suspicion of acting as ‘secret agents’ and planning to send parcels with explosives to Ukraine in an act of ‘sabotage’ for Russia.
The three Ukrainian nationals were arrested in Germany and Switzerland on suspicion of agreeing to send parcels containing explosive or incendiary devices from Germany to Ukraine, German prosecutors said.
They were apparently working for people associated with Russian state agencies.
The alleged plan was for the men to send packages that would explode while being transported to Ukraine.
According to the German news magazine Spiegel, the man had started to run tests for possible attacks by sending parcels with GPS trackers to Ukraine.
The men are suspected of acting as secret agents for the purpose of sabotage, as well as agreeing to commit arson and bring about an explosion, federal prosecutors said in a statement.
Two of the men – identified only as Vladyslav T and Daniil B in line with German privacy rules – were arrested in different parts of Germany on Friday and Saturday respectively.
The third, identified as Yevhen B, was arrested on Tuesday in the northern Thurgau region of neighbouring Switzerland.
The suspects are accused of telling “one or more people suspected to be acting on behalf of Russian state agencies” around March that they were prepared to carry out attacks on freight transport in Germany, prosecutors said.
One of the suspects, Vladyslav T, mailed two “test packages” in Cologne at the end of March that contained GPS trackers to scope out possible means of transport, according to prosecutors.
He was allegedly tasked with doing so by Yevhen B, who is accused of providing the contents of the packages via Daniil B.
Germany has been on high alert for sabotage schemes involving Russia since Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022.
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