EU and NATO pledge stronger response after drone incidents in Leipzig
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said the alliance will increase pressure on Russia following a series of drone attacks at Leipzig airport that Germany attributes to Russian operatives.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Leipzig marked a new escalation on EU soil that was directly linked to Russia, and warned that the bloc must be ready to respond more quickly to Moscow's recklessness. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte added that the alliance, including the United States, stands in full solidarity with Germany.
German authorities said a failed drone attack on Leipzig/Halle airport on 4 August involved a device carrying explosives that was defused by a robot, with a second drone believed to have collided with another cargo plane. A third drone was discovered ten days later. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said investigations had identified the drone's configuration, components and detonator as matching those used in previous Russian hybrid operations.
Two suspects were named: a Belarusian holding a Russian passport who entered on a tourist visa, and a person with Latvian and Russian passports who flew to Berlin and left two days before the incident. Berlin announced plans to close the Russian consulate in Bonn and the Russian House cultural centre, which it views as a Kremlin propaganda outlet.
Russia denied the accusations, with its foreign ministry promising a "mirror-image" response and stating that Germany had offered no evidence. Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said Moscow might consider severing diplomatic ties with Berlin but was keeping diplomatic channels open for now.
Von der Leyen emphasized that the Leipzig attack involved "military-grade material carried out by Russian operatives on European Union soil" and said the EU would not tolerate such actions. While meeting Rutte in Brussels, EU foreign ministers discussed tightening sanctions, including a possible visa ban on Russian ex-combatants and stricter limits on Russian tourists.
The incidents were part of a broader pattern of suspected sabotage in Germany, including attacks on electricity substations in the east and west. North Rhine-Westphalia Interior Minister Herbert Reul said investigators were looking at foreign-state sabotage and left-wing extremism as possible motives. Similar sabotage claims were made in Poland, where officials described a fire at a drone-manufacturing plant as a deliberate act of arson.