Ukrainian Citizen Convicted of Espionage in Germany

A Ukrainian citizen was convicted of espionage by a German court on Tuesday and sentenced to one year and three months in prison. The charge was linked to sending packages containing GPS trackers to Ukraine via a Ukrainian postal service in March 2025.

The High Regional Court of Stuttgart cleared two other Ukrainian defendants of the charges, as reported by the German news agency dpa. The identities of the accused were withheld due to German privacy laws. These individuals were apprehended last year in Germany and Switzerland.

According to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, the suspects were allegedly involved in a sabotage plan targeting transport routes. A judge overseeing the case stated that the court found the convicted man had organized the shipment of two packages containing GPS transmitters from Germany. He should have been aware these could be used for espionage purposes related to sabotage activities.

Further, the court heard the man had received instructions through an intermediary, purportedly from a Russian government agency. The instructions reportedly came from Mariupol, Ukraine, where Russian intelligence allegedly issued the order to gather information on transport routes and package delivery operations.

The investigation indicated the suspects planned to send packages with devices designed to activate during transportation. The Federal Prosecutor suggested these packages were meant to ignite in Germany or elsewhere en route to parts of Ukraine not occupied by Russia. This aimed to cause significant damage and undermine public security.

All three men had reportedly agreed to dispatch the packages but were discovered during the preliminary stages of the intended attack. The court found no concrete plans for sabotage. The convicted man will not serve additional prison time as his sentence was considered served during his pretrial detention.

In a prior incident in 2024, Western security officials suspected Russian intelligence was behind a plot to place incendiary devices in packages on cargo planes bound for North America. This included a fire at a German parcel center and another at a warehouse in England.

This story was translated from English by an AP editor using AI tools.