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A prominent German defense executive who supplies combat drones to Ukraine says Russia’s campaign of sabotage and covert operations against Germany has crossed from hybrid warfare into war.
“Germany and Russia are at war,” Stefan Thumann, the managing director of the Bavarian defense company Donaustahl, said in an interview released Tuesday with the journalist Paul Ronzheimer and reported by Politico.
Mr. Thumann’s assessment goes further than the German government’s own language. Berlin continues to describe Russia’s activities as hybrid warfare, a term generally used for hostile operations below the threshold of conventional military conflict, including sabotage, espionage, cyberattacks and attacks on critical infrastructure, according to the German government.
But his warning comes as German officials themselves are taking a harder view of the threat.
According to Germany’s federal prosecutors, two people are suspected of conducting surveillance on behalf of a Russian intelligence service against a person who supplied drones and related components to Ukraine. Prosecutors said one suspect collected information online and filmed the target’s workplace, while another later traveled to the target’s registered address and filmed the location. They said the surveillance was intended to prepare further intelligence operations.
German news organizations, including ARD and Die Zeit, later identified the target as Mr. Thumann.
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