Arrest on Suspicion of, Inter Alia, Intelligence Activities for Sabotage Purposes

Year of issue 2025
Date 14.05.2025

On Friday (9 May 2025) and Saturday (10 May 2025), the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office had the Ukrainian nationals

Vladyslav T. and
Daniil B.

taken into provisional custody and requested the Investigating Judge at the Federal Court of Justice to issue arrest warrants. Vladyslav T. was arrested in Cologne by agents of the Cologne Police Department on 9 May 2025 and brought before the Investigating Judge on the evening of the same day. Daniil B.’s arrest occurred on 10 May 2025 in Konstanz, by agents of the State Criminal Police Office Baden-Württemberg. He was brought before the Investigating Judge on Sunday (11 May 2025). The Investigating Judge issued arrest warrants in both cases and ordered that the suspects be placed in pre-trial detention.

In addition, yesterday (13 May 2025), the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office had the

Ukrainian national Yevhen B.

arrested in the Canton Thurgau (Switzerland).

The abovementioned individuals are strongly suspected of intelligence activities for sabotage purposes (section 87 para. 1 nos. 1 and 2, para. 2 No. 1 of the German Criminal Code [StGB]) and of having declared themselves willing to commit an act of aggravated arson and cause an explosion (section 30 para. 2 StGB in conjunction with section 306a para. 1 no. 3 StGB and section 308 para. 1 StGB).

In essence, the arrest warrants set out the following allegations:

No later than by the end of March 2025, Yevhen B., Daniil B. and Vladyslav T. declared their willingness to one or more individuals, who supposedly acted on behalf of Russian authorities, to commit incendiary and explosive attacks on freight transports in Germany. To this end, they were tasked with sending parcels equipped with explosive and incendiary devices, which ignite during shipment, to recipients in Ukraine. In order to spy out transport routes, Vladyslav T. sent two test parcels containing GPS tracking devices in late March 2025. He received his order from Yevhen B. who also provided the content of the parcel via Daniil B.

The Federal Public Prosecutor’s office is conducting the proceedings due to the particular significance of the case (section 120 para 2 nos. 1 and 3a of the Courts Constitution Act [GVG]). The Federal Criminal Police office is leading the police investigations.

Yevhen B. will be brought before the Investigating Judge at the Federal Court of Justice after his extradition from Switzerland.