Bavarian police detained two men on April 12 during a routine vehicle check on the A6 autobahn near Neuendettelsau, just outside Nuremberg, authorities said. Prosecutors in Munich later announced the arrests and have charged the men with espionage-related offences.
The suspects are a 45-year-old Latvian and a 43-year-old Ukrainian. Officers discovered what prosecutors described as a number of suspicious items in the car, including false identity documents, cameras, a drone, GPS trackers, radios and multiple mobile phones and SIM cards.
Authorities say the men are suspected of acting on behalf of a group or institution outside Germany and face allegations that include attempted sabotage and procuring false documents. Neither man is a resident of Germany; both are being held in pre-trial detention.
Commentary around the case has noted that both Latvia and Ukraine have Russian-speaking minorities, and Russian officials have previously cited alleged claims of persecution of Russian-speakers in Ukraine as justification for major actions, including the 2022 invasion. Independent investigations and reports by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Council of Europe and other bodies have repeatedly found no evidence that Russian speakers or ethnic Russians in Ukraine have been subject to systematic persecution by Ukrainian authorities.