Weeks after an explosive-laden drone was found at a German airport near a Ukrainian cargo plane, the German government blamed Russia for the incident and announced significant consequences for Moscow including the closure of a Russian consulate.
Alexander Dobrindt, Germany’s interior minister, said on Tuesday that investigators had proof that the drone was controlled by agents who were working “on behalf of Russian state entities.”
Russia did not immediately comment.
The accusation is among the gravest recent claims of Russian subterfuge in Europe, where leaders have been locked in a standoff with Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
It follows warnings from European officials that Moscow is increasingly launching small-scale clandestine attacks at countries that support Ukraine, including by jamming aviation-navigation networks over the Baltic Sea, sending drones into Belgian airspace and planting explosives on train lines in Poland that are used to ship military aid to Ukraine.
Just after the drone’s discovery, Mr. Dobrindt said that a foreign power might have directed the drone, but he did not name Russia outright.
His decision to accuse the country on Tuesday followed weeks of efforts by investigators to secure more evidence. It also came a day after Germany criticized the Trump administration’s decision to welcome Russia’s finance minister to a Group of 20 summit in North Carolina, the first such invitation since the invasion of Ukraine.
The drone was found at Leipzig/Halle Airport in eastern Germany in the early hours of Aug. 4 by an airport worker, who stepped on it to prevent it from flying away and then called security. The drone was equipped with military-grade explosives, investigators found, and with what appeared to be a faulty detonator.
Airport security footage later showed that the drone had crashed into a wing of a massive Ukrainian cargo plane that is stationed there. Investigators said that the drone would have caused significant damage and possibly killed people if it had exploded because the plane’s fuel tanks are in that wing.
Shortly afterward, a separate cargo plane approaching the airport was hit by another object, which investigators said was a second drone. A third drone equipped with explosives was later found on a field close by.
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