Germany not only sends weapons to Ukraine, but also trains their soldiers in Western weapons. According to one report, Russian intelligence services may have spied on this training at two locations.
According to a report by “Spiegel”, the German security authorities have indications that Russian secret services have spied on the training of Ukrainian soldiers on Western weapon systems in Germany. Shortly after the start of the courses at two Bundeswehr locations, the military counter-intelligence service (MAD) noticed suspicious vehicles from which the access roads to the barracks were probably observed, the magazine reports.
The locations Idar-Oberstein in Rhineland-Palatinate and Grafenwoehr in Bavaria were affected. In Idar-Oberstein, the Bundeswehr is training Ukrainian soldiers on the Panzerhaubitze 2000, in Grafenwoehr US forces are training Ukrainians on western artillery systems.
According to MAD findings, the training areas were also flown over several times with small drones in order to observe the training of the Ukrainian soldiers, the “Spiegel” reported further. Security circles suspect that the Russian services could also have tried to spy on the Ukrainians’ mobile phone data with special devices.
Since February 24 – the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine – Germany is said to have repeatedly become the target of Russian espionage. Traces of a hacker attack on the Green Party headquarters in May and June are also said to lead to Russia. Parliamentarians from the Greens from foreign affairs and security, as well as three Parliamentary State Secretaries, even decided not to have offices on Unter den Linden because the Russian embassy is directly opposite. They were replaced by MPs from less explosive areas of work.