Star Metro - Alarm as explosive drone found near Ukrainian plane at German airport

All flights to Leipzig-Halle airport were diverted for several hours from around midnight as a police bomb disposal robot was deployed to remove the detonator from the unmanned aerial vehicle found on the tarmac.

The airport in eastern Germany plays a key role in the transport of military goods, including by the German military and NATO allies, and also serves as a base for Ukraine's Antonov Airlines.

Video footage from a local news agency showed the bomb disposal robot near an Antonov plane painted with the yellow and blue of the Ukrainian flag and the words "Be Brave Like Kherson" written on the side, a reference to a Ukrainian region battered by Russian strikes.

Ukraine's ambassador to Germany Oleksii Makeiev voiced suspicion Wednesday that Moscow was behind the incident, telling Welt TV: "Who else could it be but Russia?"

Authorities have not yet provided evidence of Russia's involvement and there was no immediate comment from Moscow.

German police first reported on Wednesday morning that a "security-related incident" had temporarily halted flights to the airport, also a major hub for logistics company DHL.

"Shortly before midnight, an unidentified flying object was sighted near Leipzig-Halle Airport, prompting the diversion of several aircraft -- including a passenger plane -- to other airports", they said in an initial statement.

"In addition, an object was detected near the southern runway, which was initially examined by the federal police, a process that involved the deployment of an explosives disposal robot," police said.

Police and prosecutors later confirmed that the UAV was fitted with an explosive device and that a federal police unit using a robot "removed the detonator from the explosive attachment".

News site Der Spiegel reported that police classified the payload fitted to the four-rotor drone as an "improvised explosive and incendiary device".

Bild daily first reported that a DHL cargo plane that aborted its landing after the alarm was sounded then collided with an unknown object mid-air about six kilometres (four miles) away, sustaining minor damage on the nose that was discovered when it later landed safely at Hanover airport.

Police later confirmed that "a suspected second unidentified flying object collided with a cargo aircraft" and that "minor damage to the aircraft was discovered after it landed in Hanover".

- Series of drone incidents -

Regular traffic at the airport resumed in the early hours of Wednesday but only on the northern runway, while investigators looked for clues on the southern runway.

A police counter-terrorism unit hunting for the one or more drone pilots urgently called for information from the public about suspicious sightings near the airport.

Germany and other European countries have repeatedly observed UAVs flying over sensitive sites such as airports, military bases and industrial plants -- so far suspected to be on surveillance missions or aiming to confuse and intimidate.

Authorities in Germany, one of Ukraine's biggest military supporters, have said they suspect Russia of orchestrating many of the incidents as part of a campaign of sabotage, espionage and disinformation.

In July 2024 a parcel burst into flames on the ground at Leipzig airport before it could be loaded onto a DHL cargo plane, part of what security services treated as a suspected Moscow-linked arson sabotage plot.

Russia has denied being behind any such incidents.

Last year a Chinese national was convicted for passing on information about flight schedules and cargo movements at Leipzig-Halle airport to a man spying for Beijing.

Ukraine's ambassador Makeiev on Wednesday also pointed to the 2024 incident involving a DHL parcel in Leipzig that security service blame on Russia.

"Indeed, Russia has long been waging this hybrid war," he said. "Yet the word 'hybrid' somehow downplays the fact that Russia is waging war not only against Ukraine but also against Europe."

A.Desjardins--SMC