Key takeaways:
- Prosecutors say Vadym Y. had contact with a Russian intelligence service through an intermediary from at least July 2025.
- Merz called the arrest a success but warned that Russian intelligence activity in Germany remains consistently high.
- Germany’s armed forces raised their threat level for Russian sabotage against troops and facilities to significant, according to Al Jazeera.
Germany has arrested a Ukrainian man suspected of gathering military intelligence for Russia, prompting Chancellor Friedrich Merz to warn that the country remains a target of “intensive” espionage.
Federal prosecutors said Thursday that the suspect, identified under German privacy rules as Vadym Y., had been in contact with a Russian intelligence service through an intermediary since at least July 2025. He was arrested in Brandenburg, about 85 kilometers (53 miles) west of Berlin, according to Al Jazeera. He is due to appear before an investigating judge Friday.
Prosecutors said he collected information about the production of armoured vehicles, ammunition and explosives. Al Jazeera reported that the intelligence also concerned military personnel and defence installations at sites intended to secure NATO’s eastern flank.
Speaking on the sidelines of a conference in Montenegro, Merz called the discovery a “success” and said he was “not surprised” by the suspected spying. “Let us not delude ourselves — the activities of Russian intelligence services in Germany remain at a consistently high level,” he said. “We will likely see more such cases in the coming months and years.”
The arrest follows other suspected espionage cases in Germany this year. In January, a woman was arrested in Berlin on suspicion of gathering information for an intelligence officer at the Russian embassy. A Romanian woman and a Ukrainian man were also accused of spying on a person who supplied drones from Germany to Ukraine, the prosecutor’s office said, according to the BBC. Germany has been one of Europe’s leading suppliers of weapons to Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
The BBC reported that former German intelligence chief August Hanning was arrested earlier this month on suspicion of espionage, treason and obtaining classified information for a foreign power. Investigators have not said which foreign powers were involved. Hanning led the Federal Intelligence Service, or BND, from 1998 to 2005. Police also arrested former BND employee Manfred D. and accused him of passing about 2,000 classified documents to Hanning for money, the BBC reported.
German authorities have also accused Russia of hostile drone activity. Al Jazeera reported that the armed forces raised the threat level for Russian sabotage against German troops and facilities Wednesday to “significant,” the second-highest level on their internal scale. German media reported that a drone carrying high explosives was found crashed near the Wunstorf airbase in Lower Saxony in mid-September. Citing an internal military document, Al Jazeera said investigators believed it had targeted military aircraft.
Reports differ on the timing of a separate incident involving an explosives-laden drone at Leipzig/Halle airport: the BBC placed it in September, while Al Jazeera placed it in August. The BBC said Germany accused Russia of launching the drone; Al Jazeera reported that authorities said the apparent target was civilian cargo aircraft.
BND chief Martin Jaeger told German lawmakers this month that Russia’s undeclared “shadow war” against Germany and its allies had “taken on a new, more dangerous character,” according to Al Jazeera. Moscow denies involvement in sabotage or hybrid attacks against European countries. Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused Germany of planting evidence to blame Russia for the Leipzig/Halle incident, the BBC reported.
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