Russian saboteurs last month set fire to a German factory in an attempt to disrupt shipments of critical arms and ammunition to Ukraine, according to Western security officials.
The factory belonged to Diehl Metall Applications, part of defense contractor Diehl Group, which manufactures air-defense systems, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday.
Since February 2022, when Russian forces invaded Ukraine, Moscow's intelligence services have been suspected of causing dozens of European incidents aimed at decreasing arms production and creating panic.
Security officials privately say Russia appears to be stepping up attacks on civilian and military sites and people in Europe, the Journal reported.
During a summit of foreign and defense ministers in Brussels four weeks ago, Dutch, Estonian and Lithuanian security officials warned that a recent spate of mystery fires and attacks on infrastructure could be the work of Russia, The Guardian reported.
U.S. and European officials last month said Russia was conducting a sabotage campaign across Europe in an effort by President Vladimir Putin to undermine Western support for Ukraine, seeking to damage railways, military bases, and other sites used to supply arms to Kyiv, NBC News reported.
The fire at the Diehl Metall factory, located on the outskirts of Berlin, started due to a technical problem, according to company insurers. It likely began in an area to which only a few people had access, and all surveillance video was lost in the fire, security officials said.
A company representative on Friday said the technical problem, "in theory," could have been caused by sabotage. German police have not ruled sabotage.
The newspaper Bild reported that electronic-communications intercepts — given to the German government by an intelligence agency of a NATO ally — that provided evidence of Russia’s involvement in the Diehl fire weren’t admissible in German courts, according to two German officials.
Although Russia has been trying to recruit potential civilian saboteurs, the Diehl arson attack is believed to have been the work of experienced professionals, the security officials said.
"This is like the gig economy for sabotage and terror — perpetrators get recruited like Uber drivers, but the effect is often the same as with using professionals," a senior Western security official said, the Journal reported.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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