European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen vowed today to step up pressure on Russia, including imposing new sanctions, after an attempted drone attack on Leipzig/Halle airport in Germany, which she said showed Moscow's increasing "recklessness".
Airport workers found a drone loaded with explosives and equipped with a detonator last month. The airport is an important center for civilian cargo traffic and NATO logistics in eastern Germany, and is also a base for several large Ukrainian Antonov An-124 cargo planes.
Germany accused Moscow of the attack, saying it was part of hybrid warfare aimed at intimidating and causing division in countries that sided with Ukraine after the Russian invasion in 2022.
Russia said it would respond to what a spokesman for its Foreign Ministry called "anti-Russian actions," and summoned Germany's top diplomat to Moscow for talks.
President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday rejected the German government's accusation that Russia was behind the attempted drone attack in Leipzig. He said Chancellor Friedrich Merz's government was pointing the finger at Moscow to divert attention from domestic problems and falling support. He accused Germany of planting evidence to pin responsibility on Russia, but did not provide any basis for that claim.
"Europe and NATO will not just continue to put pressure on Russia; we will increase it and we will not stop - until Russia stops bombing and killing innocent children, men and women in Ukraine," von der Leyen said in Brussels after a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
"Europeans are faced with the harsh truth that this is the new normal. We must do more, and that means being ready to respond to Russian recklessness faster and better."
The full scope of the new sanctions was not immediately known.
European foreign policy chief Kaia Kalas said the bloc was working on sanctions linked to Russia's military complex, while the French foreign minister called for measures against Russia's so-called "shadow fleet," ships accused of circumventing energy sanctions.
Rutte said that more drones and missiles were entering NATO airspace on the eastern flank of Europe, and that there had been an increase in hostile activity, including an attack in Leipzig.
"If Russia thinks that threats will divide us or dissuade us from supporting Ukraine, it is mistaken," he said.
The EU and several of its member states have summoned Russian embassy officials for talks. Germany said it would close the Russian Consulate General in Bonn and terminate its agreement with the Russian House cultural center in Berlin.
Two suspects identified
German media outlets Süddeutsche Zeitung, NDR and WDR have published details about the two suspects in the Leipzig attack.
Investigators have identified the logistics coordinator and instructor behind the attack, the media reported.
The man, born in Russia but with a Latvian passport, is believed to have links to Russian intelligence. He is believed to have arrived in Berlin by plane in late July and then travelled to Leipzig in a rented car. The suspect left Germany by plane two days before the failed drone attack, media reported.
The second suspect is a man from Belarus who also holds a Russian passport and is believed to have entered Germany with an Italian tourist visa obtained in Minsk, media reported.
The German Federal Prosecutor's Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Russia did not immediately comment further on the case.
While the EU prepared a response, Germany faced two new cases of suspected sabotage within 24 hours.
In the first case, authorities were investigating vandalism at a substation in the western federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, which caused lignite-fired power plant blocks with a total capacity of 4.200 megawatts (MW) to be disconnected from the grid.
In another case, also on Tuesday, devices with conductive material damaged power lines at one of the most important high-voltage junctions in the eastern federal state of Brandenburg.
The interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia said that the involvement of foreign powers or left-wing extremists could not be ruled out.
Brandenburg Interior Minister Jan Redmann said that there appeared to be similarities between the attacks, but that investigations were still in an early stage.
The incidents come at a sensitive time, as the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which advocates closer ties with Moscow, leads in polls ahead of state elections this weekend.
MP Alexander Trom, a domestic policy expert from Germany's ruling conservatives, said it was striking that such incidents were happening before the election.
"The clear goal is to upset the public. Of course, that's not just Russia's goal, but also others, like left-wing extremists," Trom told Reuters.
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