STUTTGART, Germany — A high-profile German espionage and sabotage case tied to Russian intelligence has concluded with one Ukrainian national found guilty, while two co-defendants also of Ukrainian citizenship were acquitted of all charges, Germany’s national news agency dpa has confirmed.
The convicted individual, who cannot be named publicly under Germany’s strict data privacy regulations, was handed a 15-month prison sentence by the Stuttgart Higher Regional Court on Tuesday. Court documents detail that he was accused of coordinating the shipment of two packages fitted with GPS tracking devices through a Ukrainian postal service in March 2025. All three suspects were arrested last year across Germany and Switzerland during an early law enforcement crackdown on the alleged plot.
In the official verdict statement, the presiding judge laid out that the court was convinced the convicted man organized the shipment of the GPS transmitter packages from German territory. The judge further confirmed the defendant was fully aware the devices would be used to collect intelligence on potential targets ahead of planned sabotage operations, and that he knew the order originated from a Russian government agency through an intermediary handler.
Per the Federal Prosecutor’s Office indictment, the entire scheme was orchestrated by a Russian intelligence unit, which issued the instructions through intermediaries based in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol. The primary initial goal of the plot was to gather sensitive intelligence on the postal service’s delivery routes, internal logistics, and transportation protocols across Europe.
Investigators uncovered that the GPS tracking phase was only the first step of a larger planned attack. After mapping routes, the conspirators intended to send follow-up packages fitted with incendiary devices designed to ignite mid-transit. According to the indictment, these explosive packages were meant to detonate either in Germany or along delivery routes heading to unoccupied regions of Ukraine. The broader strategic aim, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office noted, was to inflict widespread infrastructure damage and erode public confidence in security among populations in target areas.
The indictment alleges all three men agreed to participate in the plan to ship the packages, but law enforcement uncovered the conspiracy before any destructive actions could be carried out. The court ultimately ruled there was insufficient evidence to prove the two acquitted co-defendants had concrete knowledge of or involvement in the planned sabotage operations.
As for the convicted man, the court ruled he will not serve additional prison time, as the full length of his sentence has already been satisfied through the period he spent in pretrial detention.
This case comes amid a broader pattern of suspected Russian sabotage activity targeting European and transatlantic logistics that pre-dates this 2025 plot. In 2024, Western security officials assessed Russian intelligence was responsible for a separate plot to place incendiary packages aboard cargo planes bound for North America. That plot saw one device ignite at a courier hub in Germany, with a second fire breaking out at a logistics warehouse in the United Kingdom, causing unspecified damage in both incidents.