Berlin summoned the Russian ambassador on Monday over “direct threats from Russia” against “targets in Germany,” the Foreign Ministry said.
The threats “are an attempt to undermine our support for Ukraine and test our unity,” the ministry said in a post on X.
“Our response is clear: we will not be intimidated. Such threats and all forms of espionage in Germany are completely unacceptable.”
The ministry did not specify the “threats” and would not provide additional details when asked by AFP. The Russian embassy declined to comment to AFP.
Russia’s Defense Ministry last week published a list on its official Telegram channel containing 21 companies Moscow considers either subsidiaries of Ukrainian defense companies or suppliers of key components.
At least three German firms were among those listed as supplying unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for Ukraine. The post included a vague suggestion that those locations could be targeted.
“The European public should not only clearly understand the underlying causes of the threats to their safety, but also know the addresses, as well as the location of ‘Ukrainian’ and ‘joint’ companies producing UAVs and their components for Ukraine in their countries,” the Russian ministry wrote in last Wednesday’s post.
On Monday morning, Russian authorities arrested a German woman found with a homemade bomb in her backpack in what it alleged was a Ukrainian plot to blow up a law enforcement building in the southern city of Pyatigorsk.
Russia’s FSB security service said the woman, identified only as having been born in 1969, was recruited by a citizen of a Central Asian country who was working for Ukrainian security services.
According to the FSB, the bomb was supposed to detonate remotely, which would have killed the woman. It said law enforcement used electronic jamming to prevent the device from exploding.
The Central Asian man, identified only as having been born in 1997, was said to be a “supporter of a radical ideology.” The FSB said it arrested the man near the law enforcement building that he and the German woman planned to blow up.
There was no immediate response to the claims from Ukraine. A German Foreign Ministry spokesman said they were aware of press reports about the arrest but would not comment further out of privacy concerns.
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