Merz: Findings on the explosive-carrying drone will be presented shortly

Chancellor Friedrich Merz has announced that the federal government plans to comment shortly on findings regarding the perpetrators of the incident involving an explosive-laden drone at Leipzig/Halle Airport on August 4. At the closed-door meeting of the CDU-SPD cabinet at Neuhardenberg Castle in Brandenburg, the focus will not be on attributing responsibility for the attack, the CDU leader said at the start of the two-day meeting east of Berlin. However, he added that they were working intensively with security agencies on the matter and noted: “We will also present our findings shortly and comment on them.”

Chancellor: “Germany Remains a Safe Country”

Among other things, the drone attack in Leipzig shows that Germany faces a “very real threat,” Merz said. “We have problems, some of which come from outside and which we must not ignore,” not least of which is the issue of security. “Germany has come more firmly into the crosshairs of hybrid attackers.” The chancellor said: “Attackers are increasingly willing to cause serious property damage—and even accept injuries and deaths—without scruples.”

In Merz’s view, the incident in Leipzig shows that the federal government was right to take many steps to better protect the country and its population against hybrid attacks. “Germany remains a safe country,” the chancellor emphasized. The federal government is therefore strengthening protection, most recently by establishing the drone center in Magdeburg.

Merz: Perpetrators of hybrid attacks will pay

Germany also acts as a deterrent by ensuring the federal government imposes a price on the perpetrators of hybrid attacks, Merz said. “They will pay for this,” he announced. This is an important goal of the legislative package on intelligence services passed by the cabinet in August. In addition, the federal government is staying the course and “persisting with patience” in its support for Ukraine as it defends itself against Russia’s war of aggression, in order to force peace talks.

The explosive-laden drone at the Leipzig/Halle Airport was discovered on the evening of August 4 in the secure area among Ukrainian cargo planes. The Federal Prosecutor’s Office described it as a “serious attack on Germany’s transportation and logistics infrastructure.”

Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) later emphasized: “Leipzig is not an isolated case; rather, Leipzig is part of a larger pattern that we are dealing with.” Although there is suspicion that Russia is behind it, the perpetrators have not yet been identified.