A couple of months earlier, a parcel — which turned out to contain a bomb — caught fire at DHL’s depot at Leipzig/Halle Airport. The perpetrators of this event, too, were later found to be working for Russia. And a few months before that, German authorities uncovered a Russian assassination plot against arms manufacturer Rheinmetall’s CEO.
You all know about these cases, not just because I’ve written about them on these pages but because they were so brazen. And Germany is not the only country to see all manner of businesses — and even business executives — targeted by geopolitically linked strikes. The U.K. has been hit by arson, as have Poland, the Czech Republic and other European countries.
In September 2025, objects in the skies above airports in Denmark and Norway forced temporary closures. Drones keep appearing around Scottish offshore installations. Numerous Swedish communication masts have sustained suspicious damage. And in the Baltic Sea, there has been a string of suspicious cable and pipeline incidents.
So far, none of these incidents have caused devastating damage — though a 2024 arson attack subsequently attributed to Russia destroyed Poland’s largest shopping mall. But each attempt costs the affected businesses money. Each piece of sabotaged infrastructure incurs repair costs and operational losses. Each disruption causes delays and further expenses. In fact, most targeted companies have seen their operations disrupted, which means additional financial hits.
In the case of the undersea cables struck by anchors, the owners were left with significant repair bills. For power cables, repairs typically run into the tens of millions of euros. Each incident also costs personnel time. Had the Leipzig drones or parcel bombs exploded, the financial losses — and, of course, the human losses — would have been extremely painful.
Even a relatively small incident can leave the target facing significant damage: Last month WB Group, a Polish drone-component manufacturer, was subject to an arson attack and incurred losses of at least €3.5 million. Polish prosecutors believe the attack was, again, instigated by Russia.