A Bulgarian man and woman detained after a Sept. 3 arson attack in Munich were part of a group linked to Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency that was operating from Slovakia, according to a report by German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, citing sources in the country’s security services. The incident involved two incendiary devices that were thrown from a passing car onto a construction site near the headquarters of Rohde & Schwarz and Helsing, which supplies drones to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The fire was quickly extinguished and the second device was defused. German authorities described the suspects as low-level recruits and said the limited damage they inflicted was consistent with their amateurish methods. Investigators said the same group had planned an arson attack on a Skyeton plant near Prešov, Slovakia, that produces reconnaissance drones for Ukraine, but the plot was disrupted. A Latvian and a Ukrainian were detained in Slovakia on Aug. 25, while another Latvian was arrested in Hamburg.
According to the newspaper, investigators have linked both the Munich arson attack and an attempted Aug. 4 drone attack at Leipzig/Halle airport to Russian’s military intelligence agency, the GRU. Germany’s intelligence services believe the operations are being directed by the GRU’s Special Activities Service, which has built a logistics network across Europe. The Leipzig group was headed by career GRU officer Denis Smolyaninov, according to the paper’s sources.
The attacks are aimed at disrupting military supplies to Ukraine and pressuring Europe to reduce its support for Kyiv. After Russian intelligence officers operating under diplomatic cover were expelled from a range of European countries over various Russian malign activities, the GRU began recruiting operatives through Telegram and paying them in cryptocurrency. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung found that the drone used in the Leipzig attack had been hidden in an underground cache.
On Sept. 24, French President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview with TF1 and France 2 that France could face sabotage similar to the Leipzig incident. Spanish newspaper El Mundo had previously reported that U.S. intelligence recently warned European governments about a possible Russian drone attack against Spain, France, or Italy.
