German law enforcement has identified two suspects in the sabotage near a Ukrainian plane in Leipzig. One of them is likely connected to the Russian military intelligence agency GRU — he is named as Oleg L.
Welt writes about this with reference to investigation materials.
The second suspect is Belarusian citizen Andriy K. According to law enforcement, Oleg L. was responsible for logistics. He entered Germany via Turkey and then flew to Serbia. He has now returned to the Russian Federation.
According to the investigation, law enforcement officers knew about his connection to the GRU when he arrived in Germany, but they did not follow him. The suspect was identified thanks to DNA taken from a glove, because Oleg K. had previous criminal records in Finland and Lithuania.
In Poland, he is suspected of arson in a store in Lodz in the summer of 2024, which is being investigated as sabotage.
German investigators believe the explosives entered Germany via Bulgaria and Serbia and were then hidden in the vicinity of Leipzig Airport. Police used data from the suspectsʼ rented car to identify several possible explosive caches.
- On the night of August 4, a drone with explosives and a detonator was found near a Ukrainian An-124 Ruslan aircraft at Leipzig Airport. It later turned out that the drone had crashed into the aircraft, but had not detonated — the explosives had fallen off on impact, and the drone was accidentally discovered only four hours later.
- On September 1, Germany officially blamed Russia for the incident. As a result, Berlin terminated its contract with the Russian House, tightened controls over Russians entering the country, and closed the Russian Consulate General in Bonn.
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