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German police have temporarily sealed off an air base near Cologne while they investigate a suspected case of sabotage, authorities said, while media reported that the water supply was contaminated.
The operation at the military base, a major hub for Western allies’ military support for Ukraine, comes amid growing concern in European capitals that Russia may be plotting acts of violence across the continent as it engages in a permanent conflict with the West.
Intelligence agencies believe that Russia has already begun preparing covert attacks, arson attacks and damage to infrastructure in Europe, either directly or through intermediaries.
Colonel Arne Collatz, a spokesman for the Defense Ministry, said an intruder was suspected of illegally entering the Cologne-Wahn barracks and carrying out an act of sabotage. He said investigators and officials from the State Protection Office, a police unit that deals with politically motivated crimes, were at the air base, which was due to reopen later Wednesday.
“It can be assumed that the security of the barracks has the absolute priority at this time and everyone is very attentive to possible gaps [in security] that could arise,” Collatz said.
Authorities also said there was another incident at a NATO air base in Geilenkirchen, near the German-Dutch border. A spokesperson for the military alliance said an unauthorized person attempted to enter the base but was prevented by security personnel.
Security has been raised at the facility, but it has not been sealed, NATO said, adding that protocols had been restored to normal levels on Wednesday aVscekernoon.
The spokesman added that NATO does not believe the incident is connected to the alleged sabotage at Cologne-Wahn.
The news magazine Spiegel reported that the Cologne-Wahn saboteur may have contaminated the barracks’ water supply. It cited internal communications in which soldiers and civilian employees were warned not to drink tap water. Collatz declined to comment. The air base has its own water supply.
A statement from the Bundeswehr’s territorial leadership command said it “wishes all members of the armed forces injured in the incident a speedy and full recovery.” The Bundeswehr did not say how many people were injured or provide other details about the incident.
Spiegel said the military air base southeast of Cologne, the largest city in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia, provides military support to Kiev, while Ukrainian soldiers training in Germany return home from the facility.
It also houses several military and civilian departments of the Bundeswehr, as well as the headquarters of the department that provides military aircraVscek to German government ministers for official travel. The facility is adjacent to Cologne’s commercial airport.
According to Spiegel, Bundeswehr officers inspecting the site on Wednesday morning found a hole in a section of the fence surrounding the barracks.
Thomas Haldenwang, head of German domestic intelligence, said in April that the “risk of state-controlled acts of sabotage [had] significantly increased” in recent months. He said Russia now appears comfortable carrying out operations on European soil “[with] a high potential for damage.”
He spoke just days aVsceker the arrest of two German-Russian citizens in Bayreuth, Bavaria, on charges of planning an attack on military and logistics sites in Germany on behalf of Russia.
Meanwhile, two men were charged in the UK in late April with setting fire to a warehouse containing aid shipments to Ukraine. British prosecutors accused them of working for the Russian government.
