BBC: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Germany has said Russia was responsible for last month’s drone attack at Leipzig’s airport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A drone carrying an explosive device was discovered at Leipzig\/Halle Airport in eastern Germany, close to Ukrainian cargo planes, on 4 August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It failed to explode as the detonator was apparently faulty, and investigators suspect a second drone collided with a cargo aircraft nearby. A third drone was reportedly found near the airport 10 days later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said the Leipzig airport attack followed the “well-established pattern of Russian hybrid operations in Europe” and the assumption was that Germany would be targeted again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Russian embassy in Berlin said the allegation was “absurd”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dobrindt said examination of the equipment used along with intelligence findings proved Russian involvement in the attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, who was standing beside Dobrindt at a press conference in Berlin, said he would order the closure of the Russian consulate in Bonn, and the contract for the Russian House in Berlin will also be terminated – which many observers have said has been used for espionage and to spread Russian propaganda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He also announced tighter entry controls for Russian nationals and vowed to increase pressure on Moscow’s shadow fleet – old tankers used by Russia to circumvent Western sanctions following its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wadephul said he had summoned Russia’s ambassador to Germany, Sergei Nechayev. He was seen arriving at the foreign ministry shortly after the announcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for Russia’s foreign ministry, said Moscow would respond in a “mirror-image” fashion to Germany’s measures while the Russian embassy described the measures as an “unprecedented escalation in Russian-German relations”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Berlin is sponsoring terrorism”, Zakharova told the German Press Agency in reference to its military and economic support provided to Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There have been previous suggestions that the Goethe-Institut in Moscow would have to cease operations if the Germans went through with closing Russian House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Security experts had speculated that Russia may have been responsible, however Russia has always rejected claims of involvement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Leipzig\/Halle Airport in the east of the country is used by Germany’s military and Nato allies for the transport of military goods and also serves as a base for Ukraine’s Antonov Airlines – which carries most of the country’s aerial cargo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The head of Nato, Mark Rutte, said the organisation “stands in full solidarity with Germany”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The evidence is clear. And I welcome the measures announced by Germany in response,” he wrote on X.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BBC: Germany has said Russia was responsible for last month’s drone attack at Leipzig’s airport. A drone carrying an explosive device was discovered at Leipzig\/Halle Airport in eastern Germany, close to Ukrainian cargo planes, on 4 August. It failed to explode as the detonator was apparently faulty, and investigators suspect a second drone collided with a cargo aircraft nearby. A third drone was reportedly found near the airport 10 days later. Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said the Leipzig airport attack followed the “well-established pattern of Russian hybrid operations in Europe” and the assumption was that Germany would be targeted again…. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":60953,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-in-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60952"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60954,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60952\/revisions\/60954"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/60953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}