Russian drones are flying over US weapons routes in Germany, officials say

American-made artillery shells in a factory in Scranton, Pennsylvania, before being sent to Ukraine. Russia or its proxies are flying surveillance drones over routes that the United States and its allies use to ferry military supplies through eastern Germany, collecting intelligence that could be used to bolster the Kremlin’s sabotage campaign and assist its troops in Ukraine. Photo / Natalie Keyssar, The New York Times

Russia or its proxies are flying surveillance drones over routes that the United States and its allies use to ferry military supplies through eastern Germany, collecting intelligence that could be used to bolster the Kremlin’s sabotage campaign and assist its troops in Ukraine, according to US and other Western officials.

US and German officials have been discussing Russian sabotage efforts, including information that led to the arrest in May of three Ukrainian men accused in a Russia-linked plot, the officials said.

The Russian sabotage campaign has led to fires at warehouses in Britain, an attack against a dam in Norway, attempts to cut cables under the Baltic Sea and an array of operations intended to bring the war in Ukraine closer to the heart of Europe and to undermine support for Ukraine.

After hitting a high last year, Russian sabotage acts have fallen off significantly this year, experts and Western intelligence officials said.

That is at least partly the result of heightened security in Europe, and efforts by US and European intelligence services to prevent attacks.

The drop also likely reflects a swirl of diplomatic activity to negotiate an end to the fighting in Ukraine.

“The landscape is more difficult for Russians to operate,” said Seth Jones, who studies the issue for the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. “But it’s not unreasonable to assume the Russians are a bit more cautious now while there are negotiations.”

Jones noted in a report published in March that Russian attacks in Europe quadrupled between 2022 and 2023, then tripled again between 2023 and 2024.

Jones tracked a significant drop-off in the first six months of this year, with only four incidents qualifying as sabotage or attempted sabotage by Russia.

The International Institute for Strategic Studies also said in a report this month that sabotage operations this year had declined, but that the threat remained as Europeans struggled to co-ordinate a response.

In written testimony to the Senate in June, General Alexus Grynkewich, now the head of US European Command, said targeted sabotage incidents had declined this year “due to heightened public scrutiny and robust law enforcement efforts by European authorities”.

During the Biden Administration, the US provided intelligence to Europe to help push for a united front across Nato countries. The intelligence sharing has continued under the Trump Administration.

US spy agencies have been providing information to European governments about potential sabotage actions, according to people briefed on the discussions.

That has included a warning to German intelligence officials about a plot to send explosives or incendiary devices on cargo planes transiting Germany.

The warning resulted in the arrest of the three Ukrainian nationals in Germany and Switzerland. The federal prosecutor’s office in Berlin said in a statement at the time that the plan appeared to be part of a plot to damage logistical infrastructure for commercial freight.

The devices were addressed to locations in Ukraine, but people briefed on the matter said it was not clear if those were the targets, or if the devices were intended to go off on cargo planes in Germany.

While Russia’s intelligence operations have been under ever stricter scrutiny, they have retained the ability to recruit people to carry out attacks throughout Europe, according to Western officials.

As a result, US and European military officials have been increasingly concerned about the drone flights in Germany.

The flights, concentrated in the eastern German state of Thuringia, were also reported by WirtschaftsWoche, a German publication that has reported extensively on the sabotage campaign.

After the articles were published, Boris Pistorius, the German Defence Minister, said today that the German military had developed new techniques to intercept drones or render them harmless, but was limited in what it could do to completely stop the flights.

“This is a constant technical cat-and-mouse game between what drone developers do and what we can do,” Pistorius told reporters in Berlin.

“We are fully aware of the challenge and are doing everything we can in the short time available, but yes, the fact that drones are also flying over ports and railway facilities should come as no surprise to anyone. However, there is not much we can do about it.”

WirtschaftsWoche also reported that at least some of the drones were manufactured in Iran, and German intelligence officials believe at least some of the flights might have originated from ships in the Baltic Sea.

US officials confirmed the flights but said they were unable to track their origin. They believe the drones have been flown by Russians or people working for Russian intelligence services.

Today, the Kremlin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, dismissed the reports as most likely “fake”.

“It’s hard to imagine this,” he told reporters when asked if Russia was tracking shipments through Germany.

“Because then the Germans would be seeing it clearly and they would be unlikely to be silent. So most likely it sounds like yet another newspaper fake.”

Jones said the drone flights over supply routes were “straight-up espionage”, as Russia tries to learn what firms are manufacturing weapons for Ukraine, and how weapons are being shipped into Poland and on to Ukraine.

The drone surveillance, he said, was most likely related to battlefield intelligence meant to give the Russian Army a better idea of what weaponry it would face, and when.

Jones and Western officials said that should Russia decide to step up its sabotage operations in the future, it could use the information being collected by the drone flights.

“If at some point the Russians wanted to get more aggressive and forward leaning with that kind of intelligence collection, they know what companies are exporting and what routes are being used,” Jones said.

“It would be useful if they wanted to conduct sabotage or subversive operations.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Written by: Julian E. Barnes and Eric Schmitt

Photographs by: Natalie Keyssar

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