Drones in Leipzig: Berlin accuses Moscow. EU and NATO: ‘New sanctions against Russia’

At the end of her meeting with Rutte, von der Leyen told the press that ‘pressure on Russia will be stepped up’ and that she may impose further sanctions to this end. Speaking alongside Rutte, she added that ‘the EU and NATO stand united’. The incident in Leipzig “was an attack using military equipment carried out as part of a Russian operation on European soil. We will not tolerate this. This intimidation will not work.” Rutte stated that he fully agreed with von der Leyen.

The fact that the threat does not hang over Berlin alone was also demonstrated on Monday night: several drones triggered an alert in Latvia and crossed into the airspace of Estonia, prompting NATO fighter jets to scramble. This is the latest in a series of incidents involving the skies over half of Europe. But Germany ‘remains a daily target of a hybrid war’, emphasised Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt in a statement alongside his Foreign Affairs counterpart Johann Wadephul, who had rushed back from Algiers just as “several unconventional, homemade explosive devices” were discovered in Brandenburg; these damaged a power line but caused no injuries or power cuts, as confirmed by the Potsdam police.

The German response to the explosive-laden drones launched at Leipzig Airport had been anticipated for days. On the night of 4 August, a first flying object had been found on the taxiway at the airport in the Saxon city, next to some Ukrainian Antonovs, whilst a second one had collided with a DHL aircraft in flight, damaging its nose. The third drone, also packed with explosives, was found ten days later on a plot of land in the neighbouring state. And after weeks of investigation, German intelligence agents and investigators are in no doubt: these were attempted attacks and the Russian intelligence services are undoubtedly behind them.

Furthermore, Moscow’s destabilisation activities in Germany – involving espionage and sabotage – are also intensifying on the political front, with disinformation campaigns in the run-up to the elections in the east of the country: the first of which will take place on Sunday in Saxony-Anhalt. As several observers point out, these disinformation campaigns spare only the far-right AfD, which is leading in the polls and heading towards an increasingly likely victory.

In Ukraine, the death toll from the Russian attack that took place overnight in Odessa stands at eight, including a minor, according to the head of the city administration, Serhiy Lysak. “Two people have been admitted to hospital. A 24-storey residential block has been damaged. Flats on several floors have been destroyed. Office buildings and two schools have also been destroyed.”

Following yet another massacre in the Kyiv region, with at least 12 deaths caused by Russian air strikes, Volodymyr Zelensky has effectively announced a ‘closure’ of Russian airspace: ‘The escalation cannot and will not remain confined to Ukrainian territory. Today we wish to warn every airline using Russian airspace, every insurer and anyone still using Russia’s main airports: Russian airspace is becoming completely unsafe. There will be drones in Russian airspace on a scale that must be taken into account,” added the Ukrainian president. These statements were dismissed by the Kremlin leader himself, who described Zelensky’s threats to civilian flights as “state terrorism”.

Against this backdrop, ‘Strong Griffon 26’, an international military exercise involving troops from Lithuania, the United States, Poland, the Netherlands, France, Ukraine, Moldova and Portugal, is getting underway in Svencionys County, in north-eastern Lithuania.