Il Nuovo Postiglione - Explosive drone found near Ukrainian plane at German airport

All flights to Leipzig-Halle airport were diverted for several hours from around midnight as police deployed a bomb-disposal robot to remove the detonator from the explosive in the drone

The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) had been found on the tarmac.

The airport in eastern Germany plays a key role in the transport of military goods by the German armed forces and NATO allies. It 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. The words "Be Brave Like Kherson" were written on the side -- a reference to a Ukrainian region battered by Russian strikes.

Ukraine's ambassador to Germany Oleksii Makeiev blamed Moscow. "Who else could it be but Russia?" he said on Welt TV.

Authorities have said the investigation is ongoing. Moscow had made no comment so far.

Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt was heading to the scene to confer with security officials, the Bild daily reporting he had cut short his holiday in Italy.

- 'Security-related incident' -

German police first reported on Wednesday morning that a "security-related incident" had temporarily halted flights to the airport, which is 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 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 later confirmed that a police unit using a robot had "removed the detonator from the explosive attachment".

Bild first reported that a DHL cargo plane had aborted its landing after the alarm then collided with an unknown object mid-air about six kilometres (four miles) away at an altitude of 400 metres.

Police 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".

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

- 'New level of escalation' -

Germany and other European countries have repeatedly observed UAVs flying over sensitive sites such as airports, military bases and industrial plants.

So far, they have been suspected of being on surveillance missions or there 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.

Russia has denied being behind any such incidents.

Marc Henrichmann, the conservative chairman of the German parliament's intelligence oversight committee, said that the latest incident looked like "an attempt to target a company of importance for Ukraine".

If the details are confirmed, it "would represent a new level of escalation in these sorts of attacks," he told the Rheinische Post newspaper.

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.

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.

"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."

Q.Bernardi--INP