Stuttgart court sentences three Ukrainians for sabotage on behalf of Russia

The Stuttgart Higher Regional Court has delivered its verdict in the case of three Ukrainian nationals accused of espionage and conspiracy to commit arson in the interests of a Russian intelligence service.

The case drew widespread attention in the context of what German authorities describe as a system of sabotage operations organized by Russia across Europe.

The defendants — Daniil Belsky (22), Vladislav Tkachenko (25), and Yevgeny Beschasny (30) — allegedly acted as agents of Russian intelligence in an operation targeting the transport network of a parcel delivery company, according to federal prosecutors.

According to the indictment, in March 2025 the three men sent two parcels containing activated GPS trackers from the German cities of Cologne and Constance to Ukraine via the Ukrainian postal service. The operation, prosecutors said, was “organized by a Russian intelligence service through intermediaries in Mariupol.” The aim was to gather intelligence on delivery routes and transportation patterns, with a subsequent plan to send parcels containing incendiary devices that were intended to “ignite in Germany or elsewhere along the route to parts of Ukraine not under Russian control.”

In closing arguments, the federal prosecutor sought prison sentences ranging from two years and nine months to four years and three months for the defendants. Defense attorneys sought acquittals for all three clients.

The men were detained in May 2025 — two in Germany and one in the Swiss canton of Thurgau. Beschasny was extradited from Switzerland to Germany in December 2025. The trial began in March 2026 in Stuttgart.

This case is not the only one in a series of similar proceedings. In October 2025, a Munich court sentenced a man with dual Russian-German citizenship to six years in prison for spying for Moscow and planning acts of sabotage. On August 2, German police detained a Ukrainian national on suspicion of surveilling a Bavarian arms manufacturer on behalf of a foreign intelligence service.

Germany is simultaneously addressing security concerns in the field of drone technology. Last Tuesday, a new drone research center opened in Saxony-Anhalt — two weeks after an explosive-laden drone was discovered near Ukrainian cargo aircraft at Leipzig Airport. Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt stated that “the arms race in drone technology requires the creation of specialized research institutions in order to keep pace.”