Germany probes two power substation attacks, Russia summons German envoy
German police are investigating two suspected sabotage attacks on electricity substations in Brandenburg and North Rhine-Westphalia, as Moscow summoned Germany's charge d'affaires over Berlin's sanctions tied to a drone attack on Leipzig airport.
German authorities on Wednesday were investigating two separate attacks on electricity substations, the latest in a string of suspected sabotage incidents targeting the country's critical infrastructure.
The first attack triggered a terrorism investigation after improvised explosives, resembling large fireworks, were fired early Tuesday at a substation in Preilack, in the eastern state of Brandenburg. The blast damaged power cables and briefly disrupted electricity supply. The site distributes power generated by the nearby Jaenschwalde plant.
In the second case, unidentified attackers are suspected of deliberately causing a short-circuit by placing conductive material on overhead power lines at a substation in Bergheim, in North Rhine-Westphalia. The state's interior minister, Herbert Reul, said officials were investigating whether the act was directed by a foreign state or linked to left-wing extremism.
Neither incident caused widespread power outages, though both affected operations at nearby coal-fired power plants. Energy company RWE said five generating units across two of its coal plants were knocked offline because of the Bergheim disruption; three were expected to resume operation Wednesday, with the remaining two restarting over the weekend.
Reul said such hybrid attacks were happening close to home, not far away, and warned that those responsible were targeting the country as a whole, not merely infrastructure. Germany has experienced repeated attacks on its power grid in recent times, with far-left groups claiming responsibility for some past incidents.
Tensions with Moscow
The substation attacks came on the same day Germany formally accused Russia of orchestrating an explosive-laden drone attack on Leipzig airport last month, announcing countermeasures including the closure of a Russian consulate in Bonn and the cancellation of an agreement with a Russian cultural centre in Berlin.
Russia said Wednesday it had summoned Germany's charge d'affaires to protest what it called anti-Russian actions, dismissing Berlin's allegations as baseless. German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung reported that investigators had identified two suspects linked to the Leipzig incident — a Russian-born Latvian national and a Russian national from Belarus — though they are unlikely to be detained.
