The forceful response marks a hardening of the German government’s approach to Moscow.
BERLIN — Berlin squarely placed the blame for an incursion of explosive-laden drones last month on the Kremlin and announced a raft of retaliatory diplomatic measures.
“The attack involved tools such as the drone configuration, various components, explosives, and cyber technology that we recognize from other Russian hybrid operations and its war against Ukraine,” Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt told reporters in Berlin on Tuesday. “The German government has therefore concluded that Russia is responsible for the hybrid attack in Leipzig on August 4.”
The attempted attack in August involved three drones — two of which carried explosive material — spotted at Leipzig-Halle Airport in eastern Germany in August, including one drone that was found near a Ukrainian Antonov plane used to transport munitions.
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul announced a series of domestic countermeasures, including the closure of Russia’s Bonn consulate on September 18, stricter entry controls for Russian nationals and the termination of the agreement governing the Russian House in central Berlin—a cultural institution suspected of serving as a hub for espionage operations and whose Russian operator is under EU sanctions.
Germany will also propose new EU sanctions targeting Russian individuals connected to hybrid attacks, while pushing to increase measures targeting Russia’s shadow fleet, Wadephul said.
His comments come as EU foreign ministers are set to meet in Ireland on Tuesday night and Wednesday. “The matter, including additional sanctions, will be prepared by Foreign Ministers at their upcoming meeting,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote on social media after the press conference.
“If the gravity of the events is confirmed”, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot told reporters earlier on Tuesday morning, “there will inevitably be consequences, particularly regarding the sanctions that might be imposed on Russia.”
Berlin’s response marks a hardening in the German government’s approach to Russia under Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Merz has long maintained that Germany is neither at war nor at peace, but it is rare for Berlin to so definitively attribute a hybrid attack to Russia and take targeted countermeasures.
“NATO stands in full solidarity with Germany after the Russian hybrid attack in Leipzig,” the alliance’s secretary-general Mark Rutte said on X. “I welcome the measures announced by Germany in response,” he added.
This story is being updated.