Police investigate series of sabotage attacks on German power substations

Police are investigating a fire and an apparent break-in at power substations across Germany, further escalating security concerns over a series of sabotage attacks on the power grid.

The fire broke out at a construction site in Berlin’s Mitte district early on Monday morning before spreading to a transformer substation, police said.

Fire crews were brought in to tackle the blaze through the night while police investigators examined the site. It was not immediately clear what had caused the fire.

The incident occurred just hours after police in the western city of Wesel launched a major operation at the Niederrhein substation after finding ‘irregularities’ at the facility, including a hole cut in an exterior security fence, according to Bild.

A helicopter circled above the facility late on Sunday while police swept the area, the newspaper reported, adding that it was unclear whether any technical equipment had been damaged or tampered with.

The incidents followed an apparent attempt to short-circuit a grid transformer in Dormagen, near Dusseldorf, last week, and vandalism at a substation in nearby Bergheim, near Cologne.

In Dormagen, a passer-by spotted pipes fitted with cables and timers aimed at a substation. Police subsequently found two launch devices in the area.

Bild reported that suspected explosives or incendiary devices had also been found on overhead power lines at two substations in Saxony's Goerlitz district, prompting a police operation at facilities linked to the Lusatian lignite mining and power generation region.

Power lines at one of the most critical high-voltage nodes in the eastern state of Brandenburg were also damaged in a recent act of apparent sabotage, while police cordoned off a transformer station in Ganderkesee, citing suspicious circumstances.

Germany has been the focus of European fears about the vulnerability of critical infrastructure after Berlin accused Russia of responsibility for a failed drone attack at Halle/Leipzig airport last month.

Police also said on Friday that they were searching for a man who sent letters claiming responsibility for a series of sabotage attacks on the power grid last week after they found what appeared to be explosives at his home.

In the letters, sent to authorities and media, the 48-year-old man stated his opposition to fossil fuels as a motive for the attacks, the interior minister for the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Herbert Reul, said on Friday evening.

Federal interior minister Alexander Dobrindt, addressing the same press conference, said the evidence pointed to a case of “climate extremism”.

In a separate interview with the Sunday newspaper Bild am Sonntag, Dobrindt reiterated his claims that Russia had been behind a string of hybrid attacks on German soil.

Russia has long rejected allegations it is carrying out operations in Western Europe.

Dobrindt said that Germany is planning a broad package of measures to strengthen its defences against drone attacks, cyber intrusions and other dorms of Russian sabotage, including a national ‘cyberdome’ to detect and intercept hacking attacks.

Natia Seskuria, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), told The Independent previously that Russia uses continued provocations against NATO members in Europe in order to “signal that Moscow retains the capacity to escalate the conflict beyond Ukraine’s borders”.

“In doing so, Putin aims to pressure the West into concessions by raising the perceived costs of continued confrontation,” she explained.

“These provocations also function as a stress test for NATO unity. By probing for weaknesses and divisions among European allies and forcing Europe to focus inwards to defend its own airspace and critical infrastructure, Russia hopes to undermine collective resolve and weaken transatlantic cohesion.”