German prosecutors arrest Ukrainian suspected of passing military intelligence to Russia

Arrest in Brandenburg

The Federal Prosecutor's Office said a Ukrainian man, identified only as Vadym Y. under German privacy law, was arrested in Brandenburg on suspicion of collecting military-related information for a Russian intelligence service. Officers of the Federal Criminal Police Office detained him on Thursday, 22 October, in the Oder-Spree district. Prosecutors said the investigation began after findings from the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution were passed on to them. According to the statement, he has been in contact with a Russian intelligence service through an intermediary since at least July 2025. Prosecutors say he is strongly suspected of having worked for the intelligence service of a foreign power, an offence that carries up to ten years in prison under the German Criminal Code.

Der Spiegel, whose reporting is cited in several of the articles, describes the suspect as a 53-year-old man with ties to the GRU, Russia's military intelligence service. The magazine says he was born in Luhansk and lived in Eisenhüttenstadt, a town in former East Germany. Security circles told Stern that he was not a so-called throwaway agent, the term for helpers without intelligence training. The suspect is due to be presented to an investigating judge, and the prosecutors' decision on remand will follow that hearing.

What he allegedly passed on

According to the prosecutors, the information concerned the production of armoured vehicles, ammunition and explosives, along with data on military personnel and facilities at sites meant to reinforce NATO's eastern flank. Part of the material was publicly available, the statement said. The rest, prosecutors said, came from people working in the European arms sector whom the suspect deliberately identified and approached. Der Spiegel reports that he focused in particular on a Bundeswehr armoured brigade stationed in Lithuania, a unit that has been operational since May 2025 and is meant to strengthen the Atlantic Alliance's eastern flank.

Chancellor's warning

Merz described the arrest as a success while cautioning that the threat remains high. Speaking on the sidelines of a conference in Budva, Montenegro, where a Western Balkans summit was held, he said Germany is exposed to intensive espionage activity. He expected more cases to surface in the near future.

We will probably see such cases more frequently in the coming months and years.

He added a warning against complacency about Russian activity on German soil.

Let us not kid ourselves: Russian intelligence activity in Germany remains unchanged and high.

Earlier cases this year

Several people have been arrested in Germany this year on suspicion of acting for Russia or other foreign powers. In January, a woman was detained in Berlin on suspicion of gathering information for an intelligence officer at the Russian embassy. A Romanian woman and a Ukrainian man were also arrested, accused of spying on a person who supplied drones from Germany to Ukraine, according to the Federal Prosecutor's Office. Former BND head August Hanning was arrested earlier this month on suspicion of espionage, treason and obtaining classified information for a foreign power, and investigators have not said which powers were involved. A former BND employee was also arrested, accused of passing Hanning about 2,000 classified documents in exchange for money.

What happens next

The suspect is due to appear on Friday, 23 October, before an investigating judge at the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe. That judge will decide whether he is held in pre-trial detention while the investigation continues. The federal prosecutor's office said the investigative steps were assigned to the Federal Criminal Police Office. Merz's remarks suggest the government expects further arrests of this kind, though no further case has been named in the reporting.