Germany arrests Ukrainian for spying on defence production for Russia

A Ukrainian man suspected of gathering defence-related information for Russian intelligence has been arrested in north-eastern Germany, prosecutors said on Thursday.

The man was taken into custody in the state of Brandenburg, which surrounds Berlin. He is believed to have used contacts within the European defence industry to obtain the militarily relevant information, according to the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office in Karlsruhe.

The arrest comes with Germany, Ukraine's biggest supplier of military aid, on high alert due to an increase in sabotage and espionage activity attributed to Russia.

The Ukrainian, arrested on Thursday in the Oder-Spree district, is believed to have been in contact with a Russian intelligence service via an intermediary since July 2025 at the latest.

He is suspected of having gathered information including on the production of tanks, ammunition and explosives, as well as personnel and military installations at locations designed to secure NATO’s eastern flank.

Some of the information was publicly accessible, prosecutors said in a statement. In other cases, the suspect specifically targeted "people in the European defence industry" to obtain the information he sought, they added.

The man is to be brought before a magistrate on Friday who will decide whether to remand him in custody.

Russian-linked spy activity on the rise

Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, suspects have been repeatedly arrested on suspicion of spying for Moscow, including several this year.

In January, prosecutors ordered the arrest of a German-Ukrainian woman suspected of having worked provided information to a spy within the Russian embassy. She has since been charged at a Berlin court.

Germany's chief prosecutor Jens Rommel has stressed that the increase in espionage attributed to Russia is not only designed to gather information, but to prepare acts of sabotage or targeted attacks.

In many cases, the ultimate goal appears to be to undermine German support for Ukraine, Rommel said in June.

In August, an explosives-laden drone was discovered near Ukrainian cargo aircraft at Leipzig airport, a key hub for arms deliveries to Ukraine. Berlin has blamed the attempted attack on Russia, a charge that Moscow denies.