Germany arrests woman suspected of spying for Russia
German authorities have arrested a woman suspected of spying for a Russian intelligence agency and passing on information related to the war in Ukraine, prosecutors said on Wednesday.
The German-Ukrainian national, who was taken into custody in Berlin, is believed to have been in contact with a middleman at the Russian Embassy in the German capital who worked for a Russian intelligence service, according to the Federal Public Prosecutors’ Office.
Since November 2023 at the latest, the suspect provided the contact with “information relating to the war between the Russian Federation and Ukraine” on several occasions, Germany’s top law enforcement agency said in a statement.
More specifically, the woman is accused of gathering background on participants in “high-profile political events” as well as “information on the locations of the arms industry, drone tests and planned deliveries of drones to Ukraine.”
To that end, she also contacted former German Defence Ministry employees “whom she knew personally.”
Officers raided several properties linked to the woman as well as addresses connected to two further suspects in the case in the state of Brandenburg, just outside Berlin, as well as in Munich and in western Germany.
According to military sources, investigators are also looking into two former members of Germany’s armed forces – a recently retired staff officer and a senior civil servant who left the Bundeswehr more than 15 years ago.
Both men are suspected of “disclosing official information to an accused intermediary who was allegedly acting on behalf of the Russian intelligence service and was detained today,” sources told dpa.
The German-Ukrainian national is also believed to have helped her embassy contact to attend political events in Berlin under an alias in order to establish contacts relevant to the secret service.
The woman is set to be brought before a magistrate at the Federal Court of Justice who will decide on possible pre-trial detention.
