Russian Linked To GRU May Have Organized Sabotage At Leipzig Airport - Media

(MENAFN- UkrinForm) The Telegraph and Welt am Sonntag reported this in a joint investigation, according to Ukrinform.

According to classified intelligence documents from Germany, Lithuania and Poland, as well as interviews with senior Western intelligence officials, Levushkin arrived in Germany via Turkey this summer to prepare an attack on Leipzig/Halle Airport, one of the key military-logistics hubs through which support for Ukraine is provided. According to the media reports, he allegedly acted together with Belarusian intermediary agent Andrei Karshakov.

The reports note that Levushkin, who presents an ordinary lifestyle on social media and is interested in motorcycle racing, operated in Germany as a GRU "disposable agent."

Journalists report that, according to German intelligence, Levushkin conducted reconnaissance near the airport on July 31. A week before the attack, he rented a car at Berlin Airport and drove it to several locations where investigators believe materials intended for the sabotage may have been stored.

Five days later, a drone carrying approximately 1.8 kilograms of Semtex explosives crashed into the wing of a parked Ukrainian An-124 cargo aircraft. After the collision, the drone fell onto the runway, but no explosion occurred. German investigators believe Levushkin planned the operation and entrusted its direct execution to Karshakov. According to intelligence information, the explosives may have been brought into Germany through Bulgaria and Serbia, concealed in compartments of trucks, the media reported.

Investigators also identified similarities between the Leipzig attack and other Russian sabotage operations involving drones and explosives against targets in Poland, Lithuania and Germany.

According to the media reports, Levushkin maintained contacts for many years with Denis Smolyaninov, who is considered one of the organizers of Russian sabotage operations in Europe. Britain imposed sanctions on him last year.

Read also: SBU exposes GRU agents who collected data on military personnel and guided strikes on Kharkiv

According to the publication, a Lithuanian intelligence report from December 2025 stated that Smolyaninov headed the Ukrainian direction within the GRU, specialized in psychological operations and was linked to covert sabotage campaigns in Europe.

According to German intelligence, the Leipzig attack is linked to GRU Unit 29155, which intelligence officials say plays a key role in Russia's sabotage operations in Europe.

German security authorities reportedly believe that Moscow seeks to make Europeans perceive support for Ukraine as risky in order to influence public debate and weaken support for Kyiv.

A senior German intelligence official said that incidents that had previously occurred only in isolated cases were now being observed on a much larger scale, adding that Germany was increasingly becoming a theater of military operations for Russian intelligence services.

As Ukrinform reported, a drone carrying an explosive device was discovered near a Ukrainian An-124 transport aircraft at Leipzig/Halle Airport. It was subsequently neutralized by federal police specialists.

At the time, German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt described the incident as a "hybrid attack scenario," while emphasizing that the possible organizer had not yet been identified.

German media later reported that the An-124 aircraft was loaded with ammunition.

Photo: Polizei Berlin, Facebook

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