The incident took place at the beginning of August at Leipzig/Halle airport in eastern Germany. The port is one of the most important European air transport centers, used, among others, to transport military aid to Ukraine.
According to German officials quoted by the newspaper, three drones equipped with explosives were to be directed towards the planes. One of them hit the Antonov transport plane, but did not explode. The second one allegedly collided with another plane, and the third one exploded near the edge of the airport.
Investigators estimate that a successful attack could have led to extensive damage and casualties.
Germany considered a response within NATO
Associates of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz were to say that if the attack in Leipzig led to numerous casualties, Berlin would consider invoking Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty.
This article states that an armed attack on one NATO member is treated as an attack on all allies. It has been launched only once so far - after the terrorist attacks in the USA on September 11, 2001. However, the alliance's response does not necessarily mean the automatic use of military force.
Russia is waging war against Europe - not only against Ukraine, but also against us - said Friedrich Merz earlier, quoted by the American daily.
The "beginning of a new wave" of operations
The Wall Street Journal claims that American intelligence services considered the event to be one of the first elements of an intensified campaign of covert operations and sabotage against NATO countries. According to European sources, the decision to increase the scale of these activities was to be made at the highest level of the Russian authorities.
"WSJ" cites informants familiar with the matter who said that after the failed attack in Leipzig, an intermediary from the Kremlin contacted the authorities in Berlin. He warned that Leipzig would not be the last attack.
Russia is said to be increasingly frustrated with the course of the war in Ukraine. Ukrainian forces – supported by European allies – are effectively limiting Russian advances on the front, and Kiev is carrying out attacks on targets located deep in Russian territory.
The Russian authorities consistently reject allegations of involvement in sabotage actions in Europe.
A series of suspicious incidents in Europe
Since August, several European countries have reported further incidents that the authorities attribute to sabotage. Among other things, they were set on fire drone production plants in Estonia and Poland. Slovak services reported that the planned arson of a Ukrainian drone factory was thwarted.
Poland, Lithuania and Bulgaria also reported attacks targeting Starlink stations. In turn, in the Black Sea, there were a series of drone attacks on merchant ships near the waters of Bulgaria and Romania - NATO countries.
According to Western services, the described operations are to be carried out by a special structure of the Russian military intelligence service GRU, abbreviated as SSD. The unit was to be established in 2023 by combining several Russian groups conducting secret activities abroad.
The diary indicates that German investigators linked the attack in Leipzig to one of the departments of this structure. The drones were to be equipped with German 5G cards that allowed remote control via the Internet. Communication was to be conducted through servers previously used by the GRU.
Suspects in Serbia were also detained in the case. The local prosecutor's office announced the arrest of seven people who were accused of participating in a group involved in obtaining and storing explosives and drones and then transporting them to European Union countries.
