Germany Says Weapons Cache Points to Hybrid Attack Plans

Germany’s top security official confirmed the discovery of a cache of weapons on the outskirts of Berlin and said authorities are investigating the possible involvement of foreign security agents in a range of planned attacks.

The revelation by Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt on Friday comes as officials in Berlin have issued increasingly urgent warnings about hybrid threats in the context of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Dobrindt declined to comment on media reports that the discovery was tied to Russian intelligence, but he confirmed the arrest last year of a suspect in Romania.

“This case shows that we are facing a high-level threat,” Dobrindt told reporters on Friday in Berlin, adding that investigators haven’t ruled out the involvement of foreign powers in the case.

German authorities are on high alert as warning signs mount over more aggressive threats. More than four years after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin has expanded efforts to undermine democratic institutions across Europe through disinformation, sabotage and other campaigns designed to deepen social divisions.

Earlier this month, an explosive-laden drone was discovered at an airport in Leipzig near a Ukrainian cargo plane. The case is also under investigation amid speculation over Moscow’s involvement, though the government has declined to disclose any such suspicions.

Investigators discovered two firearms and ammunition hidden in a location on the outskirts of the German capital last year, Dobrindt said. The weapons were disabled but the cache was left and placed under surveillance, though nothing emerged, he said.

German officials are convinced the cache was being used by Russian intelligence as part of efforts to carry out “kinetic operations,” including killings, on German soil, according to an investigative report by Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper and broadcasters NDR and WDR. German and US security services foiled a plan to assassinate the chief executive officer of arms company Rheinmetall AG.

The head of German counterintelligence has issued increasingly urgent warnings that Russian operatives are planning more aggressive attacks in Germany, including targeting individuals, according to the report.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said reports tying the cache to Russian intelligence were “lots of buzz” without any evidence. “It’s just an empty exercise,” he said.

Dobrindt declined to identify the nationality of the suspect in Romania, where he said the individual likely planned an attack.

Photograph: Police officers in Germany; photo credit: Leonhard Simon/Getty Images