In Berlin, a Ukrainian citizen was found guilty in Germany for espionage charges and sentenced to one year and three months in prison. He was accused of sending packages with GPS trackers to Ukraine through a Ukrainian postal service in March 2025. This information comes from Germany’s dpa news agency. Two other defendants, also Ukrainian citizens, were acquitted by the Stuttgart Higher Regional Court.
The men’s names remain undisclosed due to German privacy laws. They were detained last year in Germany and Switzerland. According to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, they allegedly took part in a sabotage plan targeting transportation routes of the postal service.
The presiding judge noted that the convicted man organized the shipment of two packages in Germany containing GPS transmitters. The court considered that he should have known these could be used for espionage purposes related to sabotage, as reported by dpa. The judge also stated that the accused was informed through an intermediary that the order came from a Russian government agency.
The Federal Prosecutor’s Office suspects a Russian intelligence service issued the order via intermediaries from Mariupol, Ukraine. The objective was to gather information on transportation routes and procedures of the package delivery service.
According to investigators, the plan was for the accused to send packages containing devices that would activate during transport. The Federal Prosecutor stated these packages were intended to “ignite in Germany or elsewhere en route to unoccupied parts of Ukraine and cause as much damage as possible, undermining public security,” dpa reported. While all three men agreed to send the packages, they were uncovered during the preparatory stages of the attacks. The court did not find concrete sabotage plans.
The convicted man’s prison time will not extend as his sentence was served during pretrial detention.
In a similar case in 2024, Western security officials suspect Russian intelligence orchestrated a plan to place incendiary devices in packages on cargo planes destined for North America. Two incidents involved one package igniting at a German courier hub and another at a warehouse in England.
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