The discovery of an explosive-laden drone at Leipzig/Halle Airport, along with the provocative and irresponsible reactions to it, show just how close Germany is to a direct war with Russia, a nuclear-armed power. A single unexpected incident—or a provocation—would suffice to transform the proxy war that NATO is currently waging against Russia in Ukraine into an open war that would also affect large parts of Germany and Europe.
Although neither the origin of the drone nor who brought it to the airport and controlled it is yet known, numerous media outlets, politicians and so-called “security experts” immediately accused Russia of carrying out a terrorist attack on German soil. “The incident fits the pattern of Russia’s ‘hybrid’ escalation in Europe,” read a typical commentary by the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND), which begins with the words: “We are not at war, but we have not been at peace for a long time either.”
The legal portal LTO (Legal Tribune Online) even asked whether the incident should be regarded as a “military attack ... triggering a state of defence under Article 115a of the Basic Law (GG),” and whether it fulfilled the conditions for a “NATO collective defence case under Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty.” In other words, whether it was sufficient to officially declare war on Russia.
Although LTO answered the question in the negative, it concluded that Germany did not have to “stand idly by.” It has the option of “activating individual emergency laws by a simple majority in the Bundestag.” According to LTO, the activation of the emergency laws was intended to prepare the civilian population and the armed forces to “persevere in the event of a state of defence.”
Federal Minister of the Interior Alexander Dobrindt expressed himself somewhat more cautiously. He spoke of a “new nature of the threat” and a “hybrid attack scenario,” without directly naming Russia. Instead, he spoke in general terms of the threat posed by “foreign powers.” Owing to the particular significance of the case, the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office has now taken over the investigation.
The Greens were the most outspoken. Their security expert, Konstantin von Notz, sharply criticised Interior Minister Dobrindt for failing to state clearly who was behind the attack. It was “completely obvious” that Russia was responsible, said Notz.
Green Party parliamentary group leader Katharina Dröge called for an emergency meeting of the newly established National Security Council—a demand with which the government complied on Friday. Dröge accused Russia of “state terrorism,” stating that “this requires a clear and consistent response from the Federal Republic of Germany.”
What happened in Leipzig?
According to official reports, the drone, to which an explosive device was attached, was discovered shortly before midnight on Tuesday by an airport bus driver who had previously been driving tourists around. It was hovering at low altitude between two Antonov cargo aircraft belonging to the Ukrainian state-owned airline. The bus driver kicked it, causing it to crash. Flight operations were subsequently suspended. A DHL cargo aircraft that was taking off collided with an object, which is believed to have been another drone.
According to press reports, the drone found is a high-performance, non-commercial model. It was controlled via the mobile phone network using a SIM card, meaning it went undetected by the airport’s defence systems.
It was carrying 800 grams of the highly explosive substance Semtex, which can generate considerable explosive force. This quantity is sufficient to bring down load-bearing walls, shatter window panes over a wide area and blow through ceilings. In the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, less than half this amount of the same explosive tore a fully occupied Boeing 747 apart in mid-air.
One of the two Antonov aircraft near which the drone was discovered had, just the day before, transported military ammunition from France to Leipzig, which was intended for onward transport. However, the aircraft was empty when the drone was found. Had the bomb gone off on the fully loaded aircraft, it would have triggered an inferno.
Leipzig/Halle Airport is a key logistics hub for NATO. It plays a significant role in the supply of weapons and ammunition to Ukraine. DHL also operates a hub there, employing around 6,000 people, through which a large proportion of European and German parcel volumes are handled. Ukraine uses the airport to transport military goods. The massive Antonov aircraft, the largest cargo planes in the world, are stationed in Leipzig almost permanently.
Why Russia is being blamed
Without the constant supply of weapons and ammunition from NATO, Ukraine would be unable to continue the war with Russia. Following the partial withdrawal of the US, Germany has become Ukraine’s largest financial backer. The cooperation is not limited to financial and military support, but is increasingly focused on the development and production of state-of-the-art weapons systems.
On July 11, for instance, the New York Times published a report on the defence firm Helsing, which develops and produces drones at a secret location near Munich. The start-up, founded five years ago, is now valued at around $18 billion. The new drones are being deployed directly in Ukraine, where they are being tested and further developed under real combat conditions.
Not only are they many times cheaper than fighter aircraft and other conventional weapons, but with the help of artificial intelligence, they can also be organised into larger combat formations that operate almost autonomously and enable entirely new combat strategies. “If you don’t have a pilot, you can carry out completely different, more dangerous missions,” the Times quoted Stephanie Lingemann, Helsing’s vice-president for its air programmes, as saying. “You are no longer thinking about the human life you have to protect.”
Ukraine is increasingly relying on drones to attack targets deep within Russian territory. These attacks specifically target energy facilities, logistics centres and military supply lines. Since the beginning of July, the Ukrainian army has attacked and damaged or destroyed a total of 12 of the 15 major warehouses belonging to the Russian online retailer Wildberries (comparable to Amazon). On July 25, it struck an Iranian cargo ship in the Caspian Sea, far from Ukrainian territory, claiming that it was transporting military cargo for Russia.
Without technological, financial and logistical support from NATO, Kiev would be unable to carry out these attacks, which contravene international law. Moscow is well aware of this. That is why German politicians and the media reflexively blamed Russia for the mysterious incident in Leipzig, even though there is no evidence to support this. They expect Russia to retaliate in kind and, in turn, attack Ukraine’s logistics centres and supply routes in Germany.
They are even provoking such a reaction because they need a further escalation of the war in order to push through their insane rearmament plans in the face of growing public opposition. In doing so, they are consciously accepting the risk of hostilities spreading to Germany and the whole of Europe.
It is telling that even the German security authorities doubt whether Russia is responsible for the drone in Leipzig. They also consider a Ukrainian provocation a possibility. Die Zeit reported on Thursday:
Investigators are, however, also pursuing the hypothesis that Ukrainian perpetrators could be behind the current Leipzig incident, similar to the attack on the Nord Stream pipeline. The attempted attack, according to the theory, was intended to look like a Russian one and thus serve the purpose of stoking fear of Russia shortly before the East German state elections.
The attack on the Nord Stream pipeline in September 2022, which caused damages worth €10 billion and irrevocably cut Germany off from its most important natural gas supplier, was carried out by Ukrainian agents. This is now considered a certainty.
The attack was authorised by the then Ukrainian commander-in-chief, Valeriy Zaluzhny. One of the alleged perpetrators, Serhii K., has been in German pre-trial detention for a year. Last month, the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office formally charged him. Arrest warrants have been issued for other perpetrators, but these are being sabotaged by the Ukrainian—and also the Polish—governments.
The bombing of Nord Stream has not prevented Berlin from continuing to cooperate closely with Kyiv and arm it to the teeth. This is not, as official propaganda would have us believe, about defending freedom and democracy against a Russian aggressor, but about German great-power interests.
Against a backdrop of intensifying global competition among the imperialist powers for raw materials, markets and profits, German imperialism is once again pursuing the same objectives as it did under Kaiser Wilhelm and under Hitler: control of Ukraine and the subjugation of Russia. The discovery of the drone in Leipzig is also being exploited for this purpose.