German authorities have launched a terror investigation following a series of coordinated attacks on critical infrastructure and a railway station over a 24-hour period. The incidents include rocket assaults on two power plants in eastern and western Germany as well as a grenade explosion near a railway station in the southern city of Augsburg.
Police in Brandenburg, in eastern Germany, reported that a coal-fired power station near the municipality of Jänschwalde was targeted by a rocket attack. Officials described the projectiles as similar to bottle rockets, with only one striking the facility, causing a brief power outage but no injuries. Authorities suspect terrorism as the motive behind the attack. Meanwhile, in Bergheim near Cologne, western Germany, a comparable assault disrupted some electricity lines at another power plant.
Herbert Reul, the interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, condemned the attacks as deliberate acts of aggression against the country. He identified two primary investigative leads: involvement by a hostile foreign state such as Russia, or actions by domestic Left-wing extremist groups.
In Augsburg, two Ukrainian teenagers sustained injuries described as “acoustic trauma” after an explosion near the main railway station. Local media indicated the use of a hand grenade in this incident. The nature of this attack is still under investigation.
The investigation comes amid heightened tensions following Germany’s recent attribution of a drone attack on a Ukrainian cargo plane at Leipzig airport last month to Russian operatives. That interdiction, which involved military-grade equipment, was described by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as a brazen act of sabotage on European soil. She vowed to intensify pressure on Moscow and reaffirmed Europe’s commitment to supporting Ukraine despite intimidation attempts.
Among the groups under scrutiny is Vulkan, a far-Left extremist faction that has claimed responsibility for previous attacks on German power infrastructure and is considered a potential suspect in the Jänschwalde rocket assault.
The attacks coincide with an upcoming regional election in Saxony-Anhalt, a state in eastern Germany poised to be politically significant. The far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD), known for its Kremlin-friendly stance, is expected to gain considerable ground. Should the AfD secure a majority, it would mark the first time since 1945 that a hard-right party controls a German state, gaining authority over education, asylum, law enforcement, and intelligence services.
German authorities have linked the incidents to a broader pattern of hybrid warfare tactics employed by Russia as retaliation for Germany’s military support of Ukraine. This campaign reportedly includes sabotage, assassination plots, and other covert operations targeting German soil since the outset of the conflict in Ukraine.