Failed drone attack in Leipzig exposes wider Russian sabotage campaign across Europe

On Aug. 4, a drone struck the wing of a Ukrainian cargo aircraft at Leipzig/Halle Airport in Germany and fell onto the tarmac with an explosive device strapped beneath it. The bomb — a tin can packed with explosives and sealed with a metal plate bearing seven circular indentations — failed to detonate, giving investigators their first intact sample of this type of device.

Similar devices had already surfaced in Lithuania. In August 2024, police recovered two tin cans containing roughly 968 grams of explosives, equivalent to about four hand grenades, hidden in a cemetery in Kaunas. Further caches were found in January and June 2025, four of them fitted with metal plates bearing matching circular stamp patterns, which forensic analysis suggests were made by the same machine.

German and European security officials believe these cases form part of a coordinated campaign of sabotage and violence directed by Russia's GRU military intelligence service, centered on Unit 29155 — a group previously linked to ammunition depot explosions in Bulgaria and the Czech Republic and the 2018 poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal in Britain.

Investigators suspect Oleg Levushkin, a dual Latvian-Russian national with longstanding ties to senior GRU figures, helped prepare the Leipzig attack. He is believed to have traveled via Turkey to Berlin in late July, rented a car, and carried out reconnaissance near Leipzig Airport before the attempted attack. The explosives are thought to have entered Germany hidden in trucks that passed through Bulgaria and Serbia.

Other incidents linked to the campaign include incendiary parcels that ignited in Poland and Britain in 2024, a foiled arson attack on a defense company in Munich, and an arson attack commissioned against Estonian firm Milrem Robotics. The Russian Embassy in Berlin has denied any involvement. Security officials expect such hybrid operations to intensify in coming months, targeting defense companies, critical infrastructure and Ukraine supporters, as Russia seeks to raise the political cost of Western support for Kyiv.