‘New level of danger’: Drone incidents scare Europe amid Russia-Ukraine war

A quadcopter drone with plastic explosives attached to it flew unnoticed past air defence installations at Germany’s Leipzig/Halle Airport, a key NATO airlift hub, on August 4.

The drone hit a Ukrainian cargo plane but failed to detonate. It fell onto the tarmac and was found four hours later by a bus driver who stepped on it and called security, German media reported. DNA traces linked the drone to a firebomb that was mailed to the same airport and set a freight container on fire in July 2024, the Bild tabloid reported.

The incident marked a “new level of danger” for Germany, its interior minister, Alexander Dobrindt, said – while never naming Russia as a possible culprit.

“These threats are not the work of amateurs. Rather, they require very professional preparation and execution,” Dobrindt told reporters at the airport. “We’re dealing with possibly foreign powers.”

Dobrindt’s comments reflect Berlin’s decades-old policy of placating Moscow because of World War II grievances and Germany’s pragmatic approach to Russian oil and gas exports, which helped fuel its economic growth.

United States intelligence agencies reportedly believed the drone was Russian and the explosives it carried suggested a military manufacturer. The failed attack was designed to test NATO’s collective defensive resolve, The Wall Street Journal wrote on Friday.

Lithuanian Defence Minister Robertas Kaunaus has a more sinister vision. He alleged on Thursday that Moscow is devising a false-flag attack on critical infrastructure in the Baltic region using captured Ukrainian drones to “frame” Kyiv. Even though he said the threat was not immediate, Poland and other Baltic states, which have also experienced drone incursions, have tightened security around their energy sites and logistical hubs.

Military analysts, air defence and drone warfare experts told Al Jazeera that they believe the drone was Russian and its failed strike is part of a much wider, years-old hybrid warfare campaign the Kremlin designed brazenly and meticulously.