DNA traces were found on a drone at Leipzig/Halle Airport. According to the publication “Die Zeit,” the same DNA traces had previously been recorded in Lithuania.
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Late Tuesday evening at Leipzig/Halle Airport, near Ukrainian transport aircraft, a drone with explosives and a detonator was found. Surveillance camera footage shows the drone crashing into the wing of an “Antonov” aircraft around 7:30 p.m. Fuel tanks are usually installed in the wings.
Bounced off the aircraft wing
As reported by “Die Zeit,” the footage shows the device bouncing off the wing and falling to the ground. Why the explosive device did not detonate is currently unclear. It was later found not on the drone itself but at some distance from it—possibly bounced off during the impact.
Soon after the airport was closed, a plane collided with an unknown small flying object—believed to be a second drone.
What else is known about the DNA traces
According to the publication “Bild,” this DNA has not yet been linked to a specific person. However, it is stated that the DNA matches an older trace recorded in 2024 during an investigation of an arson at the DHL logistics center in Leipzig. However, according to “Die Zeit,” there is currently no evidence confirming a connection between these two cases.
On July 20, 2024, an airmail parcel caught fire at the DHL logistics center in Leipzig. Due to a delay, the parcel exploded while still on the ground—if it had happened in the air, the fire would have caused a plane crash. Security services assume the parcel was sent on behalf of Russia. Similar parcels transported by DHL and DPD services detonated in the United Kingdom and Poland.
In March 2026, the Lithuanian General Prosecutor’s Office filed charges against five individuals in this case. The case is already being heard in a Lithuanian court.
As reported by BNS, charges related to incendiary devices sent abroad via parcel services were brought against Lithuanian citizen Aleksandras Šuranovas, Ukrainian citizens Vadym Borsuk and Vasyl Kovach, Daniil Yents, who holds dual Russian and Lithuanian citizenship, and Russian citizen Eldar Salmanov.
They are accused of terrorism and participation in an organized terrorist group whose goal is to commit terrorist crimes. Their ages range from 23 to 69 years.
Incendiary devices that ignited in Germany and the United Kingdom were part of a secret Russian operation aimed at causing fires on cargo and passenger planes flying to the USA and Canada in 2024, reported the newspaper “Wall Street Journal” (WSJ), citing Western security officials. These devices were sent from Lithuania.
The devices, reportedly electric massagers with implanted magnesium-based flammable material, were sent to the United Kingdom from Lithuania and “appear to have been an attempt to find out how to get such incendiary devices onto planes flying to North America,” WSJ wrote at the time.
What happened at Leipzig Airport
It is noted that the drone with explosives appeared in Leipzig on August 4—almost at the same time as Philippe Bauer, senior director of security network operations support in Europe responsible for DHL security, testified at a court hearing in Vilnius on August 3.
Last week, at Leipzig/Halle Airport in eastern Germany, near a Ukrainian cargo plane, a drone with explosives was found, and another aircraft in the air collided with an unidentified object and was slightly damaged.
Leipzig/Halle Airport is the base of the Ukrainian airline “Antonov Airlines.” It is also one of the most important European cargo hubs and is important for military logistics. Among other things, military cargo for the German armed forces and NATO allies is transported through this airport.
“False flag” operations
15min reminds that leaders of NATO’s eastern flank countries have recently publicly warned of having intelligence information about Russia preparing to carry out provocations with kinetic means in their countries.
Last week, 15min reported that Lithuanian military intelligence has data that Russia is considering attacks on critical infrastructure in the Baltic region, using intercepted Ukrainian drones to mislead.
It is reported that the drone seen flying near the Ukrainian aircraft may have been shot down by a bus driver present there.
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