Symbolic imagePoland said on Thursday it had detained a Russian over a Moscow-ordered plot to kill a Ukrainian-American in Warsaw, sharpening a confrontation that already runs from unexplained drones over Leipzig and Hanover to NATO's accusations against Moscow.
Hybrid attacks are actions below the threshold of open war, such as sabotage or drones over sensitive sites. In Germany they pit security authorities against actors who stay unidentified, with military and logistics infrastructure among the targets. Leipzig/Halle airport serves both NATO and DHL.
Poland detained a Russian recruited by Moscow's intelligence services over a plot to kill a man with Ukrainian and US passports, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Thursday. He called it the first Russian-ordered attack on a US citizen in a NATO state.
Putin threatened on Wednesday to seize European ships over EU confiscations of Russian vessels. NATO the same day blamed Moscow for drones over Poland and Romania.
An unidentified drone closed Hanover airport's runways for 90 minutes overnight into Tuesday, a week after the explosive drone at Leipzig. Romania destroyed two suspected Russian drones at sea.
US officials believe last week's explosives-laden drone at Leipzig/Halle airport came from Russia, American media report. Berlin speaks of a new level of danger but names no culprit.
Two drones were spotted over a Bundeswehr base near Bonn that reportedly holds Patriot components, days after an explosives-laden drone was found at Leipzig/Halle airport. Berlin is expanding its drone defences.
Drones were seen over a German military base days after an explosives-laden drone was stopped at Leipzig/Halle airport. Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt calls Germany a daily target of hybrid warfare.
New US intelligence warns that Russia may seek to provoke NATO at a time when American munitions stocks are dwindling, the Wall Street Journal reported. Lithuanian Defence Minister Robertas Kaunas said Moscow may be weighing strikes on critical infrastructure in the Baltic region using captured Ukrainian drones, according to Bloomberg News.
US intelligence has tied the explosive-laden drone stopped at Leipzig/Halle airport on Tuesday night to Russia, the Wall Street Journal reports. German federal prosecutors are running a counterterrorism investigation.
Police said the drone carrying an explosive device at Leipzig airport was found next to a Ukrainian aircraft loaded with ammunition, and the federal prosecutor's office is investigating what it calls an attack on Germany's transport and logistics infrastructure. A minister said a ripped detonator stopped the device from going off; a Washington newspaper linked the incident to Russian intelligence, according to Politika, while German investigators have not said who was behind it.
German police found a drone with an explosive device beside a parked Ukrainian Antonov cargo plane at Leipzig/Halle, a NATO and DHL logistics hub, in the night to Wednesday. Germany's interior ministry calls it a professional hybrid threat scenario.