Germany said its warships were sabotaged after a report that metal shavings were dumped in a corvette's engine system
Germany's top naval officer said "more than one" of its warships were recently sabotaged.
His comment follows a local report that a German corvette had metal shavings poured into its engine system.
Without expressly accusing any party, the German naval chief warned of a growing threat from Russia.
Germany's naval chief said on Tuesday that several of Berlin's warships were sabotaged.
Vice Adm. Jan Christian Kaack, the inspector of the German navy, said at a press conference on Tuesday that the damage involved "more than one unit."
Kaack also said there had been attempted break-ins at German naval bases via land and sea, and he spoke of "attempts to approach" uniformed personnel while they were heading home.
The vice admiral did not give further details on the sabotage attempts or explicitly say who was behind them. But Kaack issued a general warning about Moscow while speaking with reporters.
"The growing threat from Russia is more urgent at the beginning of 2025 than it was two years ago," he said.
Kaack's comments follow a report published on Monday by the local outlet Süddeutsche Zeitung, which said that German police were investigating an incident at a Hamburg shipyard where several dozen kilograms of metal shavings were dumped into a corvette's engine system.
Per the joint report from broadcasters WDR and NDR, the corvette was a brand-new vessel called the "Emden" awaiting delivery to the German military. It's scheduled for deployment to the Baltic Sea, the outlets reported.
Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote that if the shavings hadn't been detected during an inspection, they would have caused significant damage to the ship.
At Tuesday's press conference, Kaack was asked to address Süddeutsche Zeitung's report, but he did not directly confirm the "Emden" incident when speaking about sabotage.
The "Emden" is one of the five new K130 corvettes that Germany ordered for delivery in 2025 to fulfill its NATO requirements.
Naval Vessels Lürssen, the company responsible for building the ships in Hamburg, told Agence France-Presse that the "Emden" had recently completed a "successful sea trial."
It did not respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours by Business Insider.
Germany is already on high alert for sabotage attempts after multiple incidents in the last two years that include a package catching fire on a plane and a fire at an ammunition factory in Berlin.
More recently, a German ammo factory in Spain was hit by an explosion in late January that injured six workers.
German authorities have repeatedly suggested that Russia is the prime suspect, but are still investigating many of these cases.
Ukraine's allies have accused Russia of waging a "hybrid war" against the West, with reports of an attempted assassination against a defense contractor CEO and the growing assessment that Russia-linked oil tankers damaged undersea infrastructure cables in the Baltic Sea.
The Russian government and the German navy did not respond to requests for comment from BI, sent outside regular business hours.
Read the original article on Business Insider

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


New York Times
39 minutes ago
- New York Times
U.S. Teacher Seized by Russia Is Located in Prison
After months without contact, Stephen James Hubbard, a retired American teacher taken from his eastern Ukrainian home by Russian soldiers shortly after Russia invaded in February 2022, has been located in a Russian prison in Mordovia. His family had no information on his whereabouts since his criminal conviction last fall. But in recent weeks, he has been able to call one of his sons. Mr. Hubbard is the only American remaining in Russia who has been designated by the U.S. State Department as 'wrongfully detained,' an indication that the United States believes the charges against him are fabricated. Given the designation, he is likely a top candidate in any potential prisoner exchange being discussed between Russia and the United States. Mr. Hubbard, now 73, was accused of manning a checkpoint and fighting for Ukraine, and then convicted by Russia of being a mercenary last October and sentenced to almost seven years in a penal colony. After that, Mr. Hubbard's family was not able to find him in Russia's prison system. In a highly unusual move, the Russian judge removed his case file, even basic information like his lawyer's name, from public view. Documents reviewed by The New York Times show that Mr. Hubbard is being held in the IK-12 penal colony in Mordovia, the southwestern Russian region commonly referred to as 'prison land.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Ukrainian woman searches for husband lost in action two years ago
By Tom Balmforth CHERNIHIV, Ukraine (Reuters) -When gaunt Ukrainian soldiers dismount from buses as part of prisoner swaps with Russia, Mariia Pylnyk tries to find out anything she can about her missing husband from the freed men, and hopes, just maybe, that he will be among them. Holding up a photograph of Dmytro Pylnyk, lost in action in early 2023, she has many questions. What happened to his unit when it was ambushed by Russian forces? Was he captured by Russia? Could he eventually be released? The mass prisoner swap last month was an opportunity for people like her to ask troops just out of Russian captivity about missing loved ones who they believe, or simply hope, are prisoners of war. The alternative is unthinkable. "I hold out great hope that someone has heard something, seen something," Pylnyk, 29, told Reuters at a recent exchange in May, flanked by other relatives of those missing in action. "My son and I are waiting for (his) dad to come home. Hope dies last. God willing, it'll all be okay and dad will come back." Precise numbers for soldiers missing in action are not made public. For Ukrainians, and for Russians on the other side of the conflict, it can be hard to find out even basic information. Pylnyk says she has written to government agencies and Russian authorities and learned almost nothing. Ukrainian officials say more than 70,000 Ukrainians have been registered missing since 2022, when Russia launched its full-scale invasion. The majority are from the military but the figure also includes civilians. Another 12,000 have been removed from the list after being identified among the dead or returned in exchanges. Petro Yatsenko, a spokesman for the Coordination Council that arranges prisoner swaps from the Ukrainian side, said Russia had never notified Kyiv which soldiers it is holding prisoner. Ukraine collects that data by other means as best it can, he said. Pylnyk and others like her share information in online chat groups and use it to try to piece together what happened. "Misfortune brought us together," she said. "After two years of this, we're like a family." LAST PHONE CALL Dmytro Pylnyk, an electrician by trade, was drafted into the army in late 2022. He phoned home often so that his wife did not worry but last called on their son Artem's third birthday on Feb. 27, 2023. He was deployed from Kharkiv region towards Bakhmut, a small city that later fell to Russian forces after fierce fighting. His unit's convoy was caught in a Russian ambush, Mariia Pylnyk said she had learned. "The guys ran any which way," she said, citing conversations with commanders who told her 41 soldiers were missing in action. Two were captured and have since been released. One, who was freed in an exchange at Easter and had lost both his arms, was unable to share any valuable information, she said. The second refused to talk. The pace of prisoner swaps has increased in the last month. Ukraine and Russia each released 1,000 prisoners in a three-day exchange last month, the only tangible outcome of direct talks in Istanbul. A prisoner swap of under-25s on Monday was the first in a series of exchanges also expected to include each side repatriating the remains of thousands. Mariia Pylnyk has given her son's DNA to the authorities so that if Dmytro is confirmed killed in action they will be notified. "We all understand that this is war and anything is possible. But to this day, I don't believe it and I don't feel that he is dead. I feel like he's alive and God willing he'll return," she said. NO SIGNAL TO CALL She lives with Artem, now five, in Pakul, a village in the northern Chernihiv region that was briefly occupied by Russians. She has not told Artem his father is missing in action. "He knows that dad is a soldier, dad is a good man, dad is at work and just doesn't have any signal to call," she said. She takes comfort from seeing families reunited and never allows herself to cry in front of her son. She used to work in a shop, but Artem has often been ill. The angst of the last two years have taken their toll on her health too. She receives state support. Pylnyk has vowed to find her husband but has often not had time to attend prisoner swaps while looking after their son. "Only a weakling can give up, you know, throw up their hands and say that's it, he's not there," she said, adding that she was very emotional when she attended last month's big exchange. "When I was there, the fighting spirit awoke in me that I needed. I have to do this. Who else will do it but me?"
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Russian attacks kill 7, injure 34 in Ukraine over past day
Russian attacks across Ukrainian regions killed at least seven civilians and injured at least 34 over the past day, regional authorities reported on June 10. Russia launched 315 Shahed-type attack drones and decoys against Ukraine overnight, as well as two North Korean KN-23 ballistic missiles and five Iskander-K cruise missiles, primarily targeting Kyiv, the Air Force reported. Ukrainian air defenses shot down all seven missiles and 213 attack drones. According to the statement, 64 drones disappeared from radars or were intercepted by electronic warfare systems. At least four people were injured during the overnight attack on Kyiv, and fires broke out in multiple districts of the capital, Mayor Vitali Klitschko reported. The strike marked one of the heaviest attacks against Ukraine's capital city throughout the full-scale war. A drone attack on Odesa killed two men and injured eight other people, four of whom were hospitalized and are in moderate condition, Governor Oleh Kiper said. Medical facilities, including a maternity hospital, were damaged in the southern city. In Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Russian drone and artillery attacks against the Nikopol district killed one person and injured another on June 9, and wounded two other men overnight on June 10, Governor Serhii Lysak reported. In the Synelnykove district of the same region, Russian drone attacks set fire to a cultural center, "effectively destroying" it, the governor added. Russian attacks across Donetsk Oblast killed three people in Yarova, Pokrovsk, and Myrnohrad, and injured eight others, Governor Vadym Filashkin reported. Russia attacked eight settlements in Kharkiv Oblast with missiles, bombs, and drones, injuring a man in Kupiansk and another in Derhachi, according to Governor Oleh Syniehubov. In Kherson Oblast, one person was killed and eight injured during Russian attacks, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin reported. Five high-rise buildings and 15 houses were damaged. An elderly woman was injured during a Russian attack on Zaporizhzhia, according to Governor Ivan Fedorov. Read also: Russian missile and drone barrage hits Kyiv, Odesa, killing 2 and injuring 12, damaging maternity hospital We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.