Ukrainian Antonov An-124 cargo aircraft parked at Leipzig/Halle Airport | Photo: Hendrik Schmidt/dpa
Russia’s president accuses the German government of fabricating evidence for electoral reasons in connection with the explosive-laden drone in Leipzig.
Wicklow, Ireland: German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul on Wednesday rejected claims by Russian President Vladimir Putin that Berlin “fabricated” evidence to be able to blame Moscow for a failed drone attack at Leipzig airport last month.
“The opposite is true,” Wadephul said on the sidelines of an EU foreign ministers’ meeting in Wicklow, Ireland, speaking a day after Germany officially held Russia responsible for the August 4 incident and announced punitive measures.
Putin on Tuesday rejected the accusations and dismissed evidence presented so far as “fabricated,” claiming that the response by Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s government was primarily driven by domestic politics.
The German announcement came weeks after an explosives-laden drone was discovered near Ukrainian cargo aircraft at Leipzig/Halle Airport, and just ahead of crucial elections in three German states, but Wadephul rejected Putin’s claims that the statement was timed for tactical purposes.
A forensic technician with a bomb-disposal robot near a Ukrainian aircraft at Leipzig/Halle Airport. Specialists from the Federal Police defused a drone equipped with an explosive device at the airport | Photo: Hendrik Schmidt/dpa
The minister said that if the elections had been taken into consideration, the government might have avoided publicly blaming Russia at this time, as the step “naturally leads to a lot of debate, particularly during election campaigns in eastern Germany.”
Voters in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt are due to elect a new regional government on Sunday, with elections in the north-eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and the city state of Berlin to follow two weeks later.
Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern were part of the former Communist East Germany, where many still harbour some pro-Russian sentiment.
Wadephul said he had received a lot of backing from EU counterparts at the meeting in Wicklow, after Germany announced it would close the Russian consulate general in Bonn and a Russian cultural institution in Berlin.
Other EU member states, including France, the Netherlands and Finland, have also summoned the Russian envoys over the Leipzig attack, he said.
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