Ukrainian man sentenced in Germany over alleged Russian sabotage plot

A German court on Tuesday sentenced a Ukrainian man to one year and three months in prison for preparing arson attacks on transport routes on behalf of Russian intelligence, while acquitting two other Ukrainian defendants.

The Stuttgart Higher Regional Court found that the main defendant had prepared the attacks as part of a broader Russian sabotage operation targeting logistics networks. German authorities described him as a likely “throwaway agent” — an untrained civilian recruited, often through social media or Telegram, to carry out low-level surveillance or sabotage.

The three men were arrested in May 2025. Prosecutors said they had sent two parcels containing GPS trackers toward Ukraine in March 2025 under instructions originating from a Russian intelligence service and relayed through intermediaries in Mariupol, the Ukrainian city under Russian occupation.

Investigators determined that the trackers were intended to map routes and procedures used by a parcel delivery company. In a second phase, the men were allegedly expected to send packages fitted with incendiary devices designed to ignite while in transit.

The packages were intended to catch fire “in Germany or otherwise on the way to parts of Ukraine,” prosecutors said, with the aim of causing “the greatest possible damage” and undermining public confidence in security.

Prosecutors had sought prison terms ranging from two years and nine months to four years and three months, while defense lawyers had called for the defendants to be fully acquitted.