Alarm as explosive drone found near Ukrainian plane at German airport

BERLIN – German police raised the alarm at an airport overnight from Aug 4 to 5 after an explosives-laden drone was found near a Ukrainian cargo plane and another aircraft collided with an unknown flying object midair nearby before landing safely.

All flights to Leipzig-Halle airport were diverted for several hours from around midnight as a police bomb disposal robot was deployed to remove the detonator from the unmanned aerial vehicle found on the tarmac.

The airport in eastern Germany plays a key role in the transport of military goods, including by the German military and NATO allies, and also serves as a base for Ukraine’s Antonov Airlines.

Video footage from a local news agency showed the bomb disposal robot near an Antonov plane painted with the yellow and blue of the Ukrainian flag and the words “Be Brave Like Kherson” written on the side, a reference to a Ukrainian region battered by Russian strikes.

Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany Oleksii Makeiev voiced suspicion that Moscow was behind the incident, telling Welt TV: “Who else could it be but Russia?”

The authorities have not yet provided evidence of Russia’s involvement and there was no immediate comment from Moscow.

Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt was heading to the scene to confer with security officials, the Bild daily reporting he had cut short his holiday in Italy.

‘Security-related incident’

German police first reported on the morning of Aug 5 that a “security-related incident” had temporarily halted flights to the airport, which is also a major hub for logistics company DHL.

“Shortly before midnight, an unidentified flying object was sighted near Leipzig-Halle Airport, prompting the diversion of several aircraft – including a passenger plane – to other airports”, they said in an initial statement.

“In addition, an object was detected near the southern runway, which was initially examined by the federal police, a process that involved the deployment of an explosives disposal robot,” the police said.

The police and prosecutors later confirmed that the unmanned aerial vehicle was fitted with an explosive device and that a federal police unit using a robot “removed the detonator from the explosive attachment”.

News site Der Spiegel reported that the police classified the payload fitted to the four-rotor drone as an “improvised explosive and incendiary device”.

Bild first reported that a DHL cargo plane had aborted its landing after the alarm then collided with an unknown object midair about 6km away at an altitude of 400m.

The police later confirmed that “a suspected second unidentified flying object collided with a cargo aircraft” and that “minor damage to the aircraft was discovered after it landed in Hanover”.

Regular traffic at the airport resumed in the early hours on Aug 5 but only on the northern runway, while investigators looked for clues on the southern runway.

‘New level of escalation’

Germany and other European countries have repeatedly observed drones flying over sensitive sites such as airports, military bases and industrial plants.

So far, they have been suspected of being on surveillance missions or there to confuse and intimidate.

The authorities in Germany, one of Ukraine’s biggest military supporters, have said they suspect Russia of orchestrating many of the incidents as part of a campaign of sabotage, espionage and disinformation.

Russia has denied being behind any such incidents.

Marc Henrichmann, the conservative chairman of the German Parliament’s intelligence oversight committee, said that the latest incident looked like “an attempt to target a company of importance for Ukraine”.

If the details are confirmed, it “would represent a new level of escalation in these sorts of attacks”, he told the Rheinische Post newspaper.

In July 2024, a parcel burst into flames on the ground at Leipzig airport before it could be loaded onto a DHL cargo plane, part of what security services treated as a suspected Moscow-linked arson sabotage plot.

In 2025, a Chinese national was convicted for passing on information about flight schedules and cargo movements at Leipzig-Halle airport to a man spying for Beijing.

Ukraine’s ambassador Makeiev also pointed to the 2024 incident involving a DHL parcel in Leipzig.

“Indeed, Russia has long been waging this hybrid war,” he said. “Yet the word ‘hybrid’ somehow downplays the fact that Russia is waging war not only against Ukraine but also against Europe.” AFP