🕵️‍♂️ | UA-NATO/RU | Crisis Environment | REPORTS

[william]

Press conference with Helen McEntee following today’s meeting of Defence Ministers

Russia is hitting Europe with a wave of increasingly kinetic hybrid attacks.With this, Putin wants to scare us away from supporting Ukraine. He will not succeed.To the contrary, we will increase our support and invest in our own defence. We are also planning the most far-reaching sanctions against Russia yet.This is the best way to stop Putin.

https://twitter.com/x/status/2094798437086531832

 

[william]

Closure of the Russian Consulate General in Bonn (Bad Godesberg) is more than a diplomatic measure. The site was one of Russia’s most important remaining land-based #SIGINT nodes in western Germany.

With the closure (by September 18), the local antennas, satellite reception facilities, and the physical presence of technicians and operators will be gone.The ability to intercept microwave links, mobile communications, government radio traffic and unsecured connections in the Bonn–Cologne–Rhineland region on-site will be severely restricted or discontinued. In and around the Cologne/Bonn metropolitan area are numerous intelligence and military facilities of interest to Moscow.

https://twitter.com/x/status/2095445528007913504

 

[william]

Putin's nuclear bomb commander shot in face and abdomen in assassination attempt​

Russian nuclear chief who ordered strike on Ukrainian children’s hospital shot in head in attempted assassination

The commander is blamed by Ukrainian security services for multiple atrocities during the conflict.

nypost.com

Putin's nuclear bomb commander shot in face and abdomen in assassination plot

He was shot 'with a pistol' in the face and abdomen in the village of Probuzhdeniye, in Engels district

www.the-express.com

Putin's nuclear bomb commander shot in face and abdomen in assassination attempt - AOL

He was shot "with a pistol" in the face and abdomen in the village of Probuzhdeniye, in Engels district

www.aol.com

MSN

I think this needs to be confirmed through more mainstream sources.

 

[Irag8er]

I think this needs to be confirmed through more mainstream sources.

The headline calls him “Putin's nuclear bomb commander.” That's misleading if it makes it sound like he personally controls Russia's nuclear weapons.

Varpakhovich commands the 22nd Heavy Bomber Aviation Division.
The division operates nuclear-capable strategic bombers from the Engels area.
Those aircraft are part of Russia's strategic nuclear forces.
He is not the person who gives Russia's nuclear launch order. Russia's president is the ultimate decision-maker for nuclear use.


There's no solid evidence that Ukraine was behind the hit.
However if it walks like a duck........

 

[william]

Russia is having fuel problems

A Russian Mi-8 crew accidentally ran out of fuel while on a flight over Sakhalin Island today, making a crash landing on a public road.

https://twitter.com/x/status/2095150687097114689

https://twitter.com/x/status/2095150756613546287

 

[GBS61]

Striking the British Isles would be an insane escalation. Anything done there would be done clandestinely with plausible deniability.

I wonder if the USA would respect Article 5 of NATO assuming that Great Britain requests the activation of Article 5.

 

[william]

I wonder if the USA would respect Article 5 of NATO assuming that Great Britain requests the activation of Article 5.

I don't think Britian would even have to request it. IMO

 

[GBS61]

I don't think Britian would even have to request it. IMO

You're not answering the question!

 

[Charmender]

I wonder if the USA would respect Article 5 of NATO assuming that Great Britain requests the activation of Article 5.

If Trump wanted to quit NATO (officially or by ignoring a call), he would have already done so, or provided clear undeniable signaling.
Not the case, quite the opposite as the Trump's administration is investing a lot of effort in presenting "NATO 3.0".
Putin knows it, as much as he knows that with or without the US, he cannot start a war with the UK, not even practically even if he wanted to (not without losing it of course).

 

[novaB]

Semi-Offtopic first:

After I posted some translated news from Germany about the first of the hybrid attack events, I planned to regularly post here such translated news from Germany about these incidents. But my opportunities to find the time for it are (due to private reasons) more limited that I'd like them to be. So sorry to everyone who was waiting for updates. I'm glad to see that others have posted reports about these incidents.
But as I would have to go through a lot of posts to answer my following question, I instead just ask directly here: to make sure that there is a complete picture, I will post a short list of the incidents that happened. If for one or more of them there has been no report posted, please just let me know and I see if I can find something. From what I followed from the news coverage, these incidents in the last months were the following:

• 2 or 3 explosive drones that targeted ukrainian cargo planes at the Leipzig-Halle-Airport
  • they failed due to faulty triggers
  • a "base station" was discovered nearby, made of electronics and a makeshift-antenna, both duct-taped to a tree next to the airport
• a drone surveying the patriot maintenance and repair facility (I posted a report about that)
• a weapon depot / cache was found
• two attempted attacks on substations (similar modus operandi):
  • one in the state of Brandenburg,
  • the other in the state of North Rhine Westphalia
• one coal power plant block experienced a technical malfunction and had to shut down - at the same time and in the direct vicinity of one of the targeted substations
• an attempted arson attack in Munich against an arms manufacturer factory (report follows)

---

Report:

Notes:

• This is another report taken from the "Tagesschau" website. The "Tagesschau" is germany's most important (and oldest) news broadcast, airing in the public-service television station ARD.
• The translation was done by the Google Translator, then proof-read and, where needed, improved or rephrased by me. I have kept the original formatting with the sub-headlines.
• Text in Italic font are annotations from me.
• Source: Click here

Arson attack in Munich: Strong indications of a hybrid background

As of: September 3, 2026 • 7:46 PM

According to information from the ARD Berlin studio, there are strong indications that the arson attack near a defense company in Munich may also have been carried out on behalf of a Russian intelligence service.


Police responded quickly: the two suspects - a 38-year-old man and a 28-year-old woman, both Bulgarian nationals - were arrested at a gas station shortly after the incident. A witness had seen incendiary devices being thrown from a passing car onto the construction site and alerted the police. Officers were able to extinguish the fire quickly, and a specialist unit defused one incendiary device that had failed to ignite. The two suspects have remained in police custody since then. Several defense companies have their headquarters or branch offices in the immediate vicinity of the construction site.

According to information from the ARD Berlin studio, security authorities have strong indications that this could once again be an attack carried out by so-called "low-level-" or "throwaway-agents". This term refers to individuals hired by proxies of Russian intelligence services to carry out assignments in exchange for payment. These tasks can range from taking pictures of a defense company to the execution of sabotage operations.


Rising number of sabotage incidents since Russia’s attack on Ukraine

The German government believes that the attempted attack at Leipzig/Halle Airport, believed to have been targeted at Ukrainian Antonov cargo aircraft, was also carried out by such "low-level" or "throwaway agents". Explosive-laden drones were used in that incident. Since Russia invaded Ukraine and Germany began providing military support for Ukraine’s defense, there has been a series of sabotage incidents suspected to be the work of Russian intelligence agencies.

The arson attack in Munich does not appear to have come as a complete surprise to the police. According to information from the ARD Berlin studio, there is a link to the arrest of a 33-year-old Ukrainian national in Thuringia in early August by officers from the Thuringian and Bavarian State Offices of Criminal Investigation. As the Munich Public Prosecutor's Office announced a few days later, the man is accused of taking photographs of the premises of a defense company in Bavaria in June and forwarding them to the person who commissioned him. This is alleged to have been in preparation for a sabotage operation. The man has been in pre-trial detention since his arrest. He may well have been carrying out a similar assignment.


Several Arrests on Suspicion of Espionage

Defense industry companies are considered particularly vulnerable, especially when involved in providing military support to Ukraine. In March, the Federal Public Prosecutor ordered the arrest of two individuals: a Romanian national in Rheine, North Rhine-Westphalia, and a 43-year-old Ukrainian man in Spain who has since been extradited to Germany. Both are accused of conducting surveillance on the Bavarian drone manufacturer "Donaustahl" and the private residence of its CEO. German security authorities believe the alleged aim was to prepare for the man's assassination.

In early July, it was revealed that two individuals had been arrested at the Hungarian-Serbian border, also suspected of having been hired by a Russian intelligence service. They were reportedly en route to Germany with explosives and a drone. In this case, too, security authorities are investigating the suspicion that a German defense company in Bavaria could have been the target.

When presenting the domestic intelligence report in Berlin [novaB: a regularly published report from Germany's domestic intelligence / counter-intelligence agency called "Verfassungsschutz"], Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) spoke of "plans for an attack involving explosives" targeting Germany, without specifying the details. Later the newspaper "Bild" broke the news of the arrests in Serbia.


Investigations following sabotage at substations

However, the background behind the two attacks on substations in Jänschwalde (in the state Brandenburg) and Bergheim (in the state North Rhine-Westphalia) remains unclear. In both instances, the apparent aim was to disrupt the power supply by causing a short circuit [novaB: in the high-voltage lines]. There are similarities in the way the acts were committed - a modus operandi that in this form has not been seen previously.

A left-wing extremist background is still considered a possibility. However, security circles note that the modus operandi is unusual for left-wing extremists, as it was too unprofessional. In fact, the attack was unsuccessful in both instances. The possibility that this attack could be the work of "throwaway agents" too is also being considered, though there appear to be no indications of this so far.

 

[DEFCON Warning System]

But my opportunities to find the time for it are (due to private reasons) more limited that I'd like them to be.

Hope everything is okay.

 

[novaB]

Hope everything is okay.

Yes, overall it is, it's just a stressfull time at the moment - but thank you for your consideration and for asking!