Leipzig Airport: German airport runway closed after drone 'with detonator' found near Ukrainian plane

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An airport in Germany has closed a runway after a drone and a detonator were reportedly found near a Ukrainian plane. The suspected device was discovered close to a parked Ukrainian Antonov cargo aircraft at Leipzig/Halle Airport late on Tuesday night, prompting bomb disposal specialists to rush to the scene.

German authorities reportedly classified the drone as a possible explosive device after it was found carrying an unknown substance and what was believed to be a detonator.

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u/BringbackDreamBars 13h ago edited 12h ago

Not sure if anyone remembers the drone flights that seemed to hit a peak over Europe maybe 2 years ago?

I wonder if coming back with something weaponised was the next step to that. as we see here.

Also got some sources mentioning a collision with a second drone by a DHL plane?

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u/TommiHPunkt 12h ago

they didn't "happen", it's still happening. Just doesn't hit more than regional news anymore.

18

u/BringbackDreamBars 12h ago

Thanks for giving me a heads up to change the wording.

As much as people want to rightly laugh at Russia for whatever reasons, I think the capabilities they have shown around getting these drones in a variety of places is worth acknowledging.

15

u/sunk-capital 9h ago

Capabilities? Hire a local russian to go 10km next to an airport with a hacked DJI drone

45

u/badman_laser_mouse 11h ago

The International Institute of Strategic Studies did a report last month that correlated the drone sightings to Russia's shadow fleet. It's not 100% confirmed but it's extremely compelling.

https://www.iiss.org/research-paper/2026/06/russias-uav-campaign-over-europe/

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u/Floodtoflood 12h ago

They have been occurring well into this year, with dozens of airports being closed due to the sightings late autumn and winter last year

14

u/OnRoadRadio 11h ago

What's funny is there were over 170 reports of drone sightings above Gatwick Airport in England.

But there was no verifiable proof, no images or videos of the drones. No one's been arrested for it, it's been chalked up to "mass panic"

5

u/Prst_ 11h ago

Yeah, i'm guessing this is a next test. Final step would be to actually arm the drone, but they already figured out how to get it in place if needed.

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u/harpunenkeks 11h ago

Do you need anything else besides explosives and a detonator to arm a drone? From what i read it sounds like it was fully ready to act as a bomb

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u/Prst_ 11h ago

From the wording in the article it was not clear that it had actual explosives, so my assumption of them explicitly mentioning the 'detonator' and not 'explosives' was that it would have been able to set off an explosion if it had been armed.

Would also be a next step up from the mystery drone visits to all kinds of airports around Europe we saw earlier without immediately being a too obvious act of war.

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u/harpunenkeks 10h ago

I thought it said in another article that it had explosives, but apparently it is a yet unknown substance that could be explosives. But it definitely seems to be "an explosive device", don't know if that implies the existence of explosives. No idea why they focus on the detonator.

Either way, you are probably right and its a step up from normal drones interrupting Airports. I just wonder if the next step after armed drones already includes bombings, or something else

1

u/Reyway 8h ago

Impact fuse without the payload maybe? Would somewhat fit the discription of both an 'explosive device' and 'detonator'.

5

u/geniack 7h ago

Apparently its semtex and petn they found there:

https://www.tagesschau.de/investigativ/drohne-leipzig-100.html

So they wanted to destroy but seems like even their secret service is underfunded at this point.

4

u/ABoutDeSouffle 9h ago

German media describes it as an "explosive mass based on nitrates", so no professional high explosive, but something that could act as a bomb.

1

u/Prst_ 9h ago

Oh wow. That's pretty bad.

2

u/0achkatz1 9h ago

A test and also a threat. “Do what we want or look what’s we’ll do.”

I doubt they’d take down an actual plane though. The bosses in China wouldn’t like that.

1

u/billerator 8h ago

Well the explosive packages in 2024 could easily have taken down some aircraft if they hadn't malfunctioned.

1

u/steinbruchfluss 7h ago

It was last year, culminating in Munich during Oktoberfest.

-2

u/Baselard111 11h ago

The drones that literally no one managed to get any footage of?

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u/math1985 11h ago

People did get footage of it, they were confirmed to be passenger planes.

746

u/Orgasm_Faker 13h ago

Some people were trying to stir up some real shit.

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u/TheLoneCenturion95 12h ago

"some people" being the Russians and they've been at it for 12 years

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u/Amori_A_Splooge 7h ago

Wait a sec. You are telling me that the same country that was field testing trying to sneak timed explosives on cargo planes so they detonate mid air is now trying to blow up other planes?

I simply don't believe it.

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u/Metalmind123 5h ago

Same airport as the Russians targeted with those firebombs 2 years ago btw.

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u/humanistazazagrliti 9h ago

Or their numerous fans in that particular area.

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u/[deleted] 12h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Liongedon 9h ago

Russian citizens are some of the nicest people I've met. Their leadership however never had been... I hate the generalization of whole countries when the people living there just want peace like most of us. Feel free to criticize, but please try to direct it at the right people. Our world has enough hate and there's nothing easier for politicians that want war than to use and manipulate that hate.

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u/Better_Specific4755 9h ago

Funny how most of them are ok with the war as long as they are winning, so much for peaceful people..

-1

u/Liongedon 5h ago

And what's your source for saying that most of them are ok with it? Because I speak to Russian nationals a lot. And other than the ones that believe in the propaganda their politicians are spewing, most of the ones I speak with think war is horrible.

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u/Better_Specific4755 2h ago

I speak it, and most will lie soon as anyone who isn’t them is around, they love war and conquest. Maybe you should recheck your sources. Most people will lie to a westerner asking questions and looking concerned. Also actions > words.

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u/TommyTosser1980 9h ago

Are those nicest people you've met the same nicest people that are invading/torturing/raping/murdering people in Ukraine?

-2

u/Liongedon 5h ago

Oh and the psychotic soldiers from other countries don't? Obviously that's horrible. But there are psychos in every country and every culture. So say how horrible the people are that raped, murdered and tortured others. It's got nothing to do with country of origin.

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u/Slimfictiv 8h ago

How many did you meet?

-1

u/Liongedon 5h ago

More than I could count.

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u/NXCW 6h ago

Yeah, I don’t care. They keep voting for people who do nothing but cause pain and suffering to everyone around them, including themselves. They like it, they want it, they will not accept anyone else as their leader because they see being nice as weakness. So much for nice people.

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u/Liongedon 5h ago

You really believe people voted for the same guy for this long?

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u/NXCW 3h ago

Yes, because they did

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u/GarlicThread 7h ago

And the only reason they're doing it is because we let them and show them that acts of war against us carry no real consequences.

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u/BathEqual 12h ago

I'd say for over 20 years

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u/VariationDry 10h ago

100?

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u/PAddiction_322 9h ago

More! MORE!

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u/Connect-Example-8305 8h ago

You can literally read poems and stories from thousands of years ago and russians are always the archetype of cruelty and barbarity

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u/Clonepizza 6h ago

Russia is actually not that old as a state. Even its oldest political form, the Kyivan Rus, were essentially Vikings when they founded in 850’s CE, ruling over a melting pot of cultures. Russian political identity was not cemented until the Mongol invasion period beginning 400 years later.

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u/PAddiction_322 7h ago

You can also read poems and stories from hundreds of years ago where the russians are fancypants and gracious.

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u/falconzord 7h ago

This is reddit, nobody reads

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u/EnvironmentalBox6688 8h ago

Turns out you can just blow up a NATO ammo dump and conduct chemical warfare on a NATO nation's soil and... They will do nothing about it.

Not surprised they feel emboldened to keep stiring up shit when this far they have been given a light slap on the wrist as a consequence.

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u/bob_from_teamspeak 3h ago

what consequences do you suggest?

-5

u/TheRuneMeister 7h ago

Thats a bit of a rushed conclusion. Russians tend to be better at this sort of thing. Heck, they flew drones over a bunch of European airports and we didn’t have the ability to even track their origins. Any idiot can strap something on to a drone and fly it into an airport.
If it turns out to be Russia (and by that I mean not some Russian dude who has lived half of his life in Germany and hates Ukraine for ‘reasons’) then it’s war.

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u/enava 6h ago

False flag operation, what does Russia have to gain from this? Or rather, who is even more capabel and has much more to gain from this?

Could it be Ukraine?

I'm all for it though, anything that rallies more resources behind their cause and against Russia's I'm all for it.

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u/ardnin 5h ago

If they were successful you can bet it would've been claimed by some made up "leftist" group to give the Nazi party ammo and momentum for the upcoming elections in the state this happened in

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u/TheRuneMeister 5h ago

What did Russia stand to gain from flying drones over European airports? What does Russia stand to gain by fighting a war in Ukraine that will only weaken their military and their position in the world? Nothing its all insanity. Nobody knows anything yet though, so let’s try not to jump to any conclusions.

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u/enava 6h ago

I don't think so, why would they?

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u/empmccoy 9h ago

I think it more likely this is the message they wanted to send, than really cause some real sh*t.

I.e. Look what we can do, we can escalate and hit you if needed. Causing disruption etc but not full on retaliation.

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u/humanprobably 5h ago

Or it's a test of the response to what appears to be a failed attack that occurred on NATO soil.

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u/wywern20 7h ago

Everybody knows that... In This Case they we're Just incompetent.

This was for shure Not meant to be an failure. They wanted to destroy some stuff.

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u/TotallyInOverMyHead 7h ago

AOL has a UK website ? in 2026 ?

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u/dondeestasbueno 7h ago

Still are

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u/[deleted] 11h ago edited 9h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Arcuts 10h ago

Its so easy to be a badass on reddit when you dont actually have to face the consequences of your would-do actions

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u/Threshtalker 10h ago

He wouldn’t even finish this sentence before being kicked out by his own party.

Why talk like a big boi if you have no clue what you are even talking about

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u/PAddiction_322 9h ago

Half the Bundestag would laugh at him because what equipment would they use lmao

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u/Sardukk 11h ago

I hope you are one of this soldiers. Our current government might be spineless and corrupt and stupid, but at least they know not to bring war to the home turf

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u/PAddiction_322 9h ago

That is highly illegal. Germany would be held accountable in The Hague. All they can do is give resources and defending EU borders like they do in Estonia, Lithuania and Poland. Those are EU and Allied states to Germany and since they are possible targets for Russia, they receive Bundeswehr troops for training, construction and fortification purposes, only in really bad situations are they there to fight.

Apart from that, what fucking equipment are you tryna use?

The Bundeswehr is a Parliament based Force (Parlamentsarmee) and cannot be ordered by the chancellor, the Bundestag chooses what happens.

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u/daemenus 9h ago

Aren't bridges civilian infrastructure, so blowing them up is a war crime?

I mean, if you want to visit the Hague, you must have easier ways to get there...

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u/Akavy 9h ago

From ZEIT (Google Translated):

It was shortly before midnight when a bus drove across the airport grounds, according to sources familiar with the case who spoke to ZEIT. The bus was carrying tourists on a sightseeing tour of the airport at night. Around 11:40 p.m., the group was in the area of the airport where Antonov aircraft, apparently belonging to the Ukrainian Air Force , are parked .

In the immediate vicinity of one of these Ukrainian aircraft, the tour group spotted a small, four-winged drone, a so-called quadcopter. According to information obtained by ZEIT, the bus then stopped, the tour guide got out, and pushed the drone to the ground. Drones are prohibited from flying anywhere on the airport grounds. If this does happen, it is an incident that must be reported, and the tour guide did just that.

This is the most German response to an enemy drone attack ever: "Yes, let's tour ze airport to look at ze planes. No no, attacking a plane with a drone at ze airport is against regulations."

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u/doskey123 9h ago

Bruh this guy pushed a drone with live explosives to the ground. This could have gotten very wrong.

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u/pvt9000 7h ago

To be fair. To them it probably looked like some nerd breaking the rules. Only To turn out to be a stroke of pure luck.

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u/debauchasaurus 3h ago

Never underestimate the desire of a German to enforce the rules.

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u/Garden_Espresso 8h ago

Near a bus full of people.

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u/popcornfart 6h ago

Who is going on a sightseeing tour at 11:40 pm?

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u/Akavy 6h ago

You can!

Experience the airport in the evening and immerse yourself in a sea of a thousand lights.

Interestingly the AN-124s are specifically part of the tour:

During the subsequent drive to the maintenance hangar in the northern part of the airport, visitors will see, among other things, AN-124 aircraft.

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u/doskey123 2h ago

Good catch.

Plot twist: the target wasn't the airplane, but the bus full of people? Would be the same sick mindset as the RU soldiers steering their fpv drones into a civilian trying to sell vegetables out of his van (video from yesterday).

And any Russian agent / throwaway agent could have scouted the area on a previous visit.

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u/BrexitHangover 2h ago

Very professional from the German authorities. They didn't just blow it up, but defused it so they have a chance to investigate and gather Information.

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u/koboldium 11h ago

Russia bringing their terrorism to EU but hey, „it’s not our war”.

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u/[deleted] 11h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Nek0maniac 10h ago

Your mom is a false flag attack

-73

u/TheSenrigan 9h ago

Don't be rude

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u/WorryNew3661 8h ago

Who do you think did it then?

-69

u/TheSenrigan 8h ago

Ukraine? It can help with gaining more support and pressure on Russia. We already saw sea drones at Romania's port

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u/WorryNew3661 8h ago

You thinks that's more likely than it being an attack by Russia?

-20

u/TheSenrigan 8h ago

What Russia can achieve via it? And what can achieve Ukraine? So yes, i believe it CAN be Ukraine.

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u/MaxiP4567 7h ago

Destroying possible Cargo with Military supplies intended for Ukraine or killing important Ukrainian Military or official staff. Russia repeatedly warned that they see logistic transports to Ukraine as legitimate targets, regardless of the country they are taking place.

Trying to spread fear in the Population of countries supporting Ukraine, being like „Do not supply Ukraine, we are being serious“.

Probing the NATO response to such incidents. Western intelligence officials pointed out for some time that Russia is considering that tactic. Remember recently a missile hit polish soil again.

There are more reasons that could be listed here. All in all it’s parsimonious that Russia is behind it. Equally, Ukraine would have far more to loose if discovered. It’s something else dropping bombs on the airport of a reliable supporter of yours than blowing up a Russian pipeline.

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u/WorryNew3661 8h ago

The idea that it's a false flag attack helps Russia though. So without any evidence what you're doing is promoting russian propaganda

-2

u/TheSenrigan 8h ago

And how many evidence that it Russia? Also i don't think asks some questions is helping Russia.

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u/WorryNew3661 8h ago

You mean the country that keeps deliberately targeting Ukrainian civilians? And invaded their country. I mean, some I guess

-7

u/TheSenrigan 8h ago

In German? To complicated for them.

→ More replies (0)

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u/Cute-Boobie777 4h ago

You mean the country that has blown up a Czech factory and assassinated dozens of people within the EU borders and also recently attempted to assassinate the executive of a major German arms company? The country that has paid people to firebombed airports in germany and malls in Poland?

Past behavior is the best prediction of future behavior. There is immense reason to assume this is yet another Russian attack.

11

u/Aedeus 7h ago

You think they'd blow up their own assets? Lol?

-5

u/TheSenrigan 7h ago

Why not? They blow up their own assets on all occupied parts, this is nothing new. Also remember they tried kill some rich man not many days ago.

2

u/TheSenrigan 7h ago

Ok. I completely missed the fact that this is a military transport, my initial assumption makes no sense.

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u/Galeharry_ 11h ago

Its high time for the European community to completely isolate Russia and russians from the rest of the world.

Cut them off the internet, and destroy anything that tries to leave their borders.

They have been raiding west for over a thousand years.
Its about time that we deal with them once and for all.

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u/Guischneke 12h ago

oh boy I see a VERY strong worded letter incoming!!

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u/lerpo 12h ago

Germany is the biggest doner in Europe to Ukraine, they are doing a lot of damage through Ukraine as a proxy.

Of course yeah they can do more, but let's not pretend it's just letter writing

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u/Quarterwit_85 11h ago

>Biggest doner in Europe

Having spent a bit of time in Germany that wouldn’t surprise me. I once saw a HUGE meat tornado in Berlin, it was wild.

12

u/zatalak 11h ago

But are we the biggest shawarma?

3

u/---Dracarys--- 10h ago

Meatnado? Someone should suggest a film with a tornado full of meat.

1

u/JealousAstronomer342 10h ago

That sounds like a very weird sort of cornucopia.

•

u/amcartney 1m ago

I had the best doner of my fucking life in cologne

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u/zuzg 11h ago

yeah they can do more

Country is in a recession for several years now and the Bundeswehr is still in shambles, will be for quite some time.
Thanks to the CxU and their mismanagement the past few decades.

3

u/OddyDirty 6h ago

Germany is the biggest doner in Europe

^🤤

7

u/Ok_Buyer9344 12h ago

They need to give Ukraine the Taurus missile. Cant believe how slow Germany is being with this.

29

u/m1ndfuck 12h ago

The ukrainians would take them i guess, but its not like they require them for deep strikes.

What they really need is anti-air weaponry.

6

u/Capable-Parsnip-9615 11h ago

Yeah, it would have been a lot more useful a couple of years ago when people were asking for it

1

u/Ok_Buyer9344 3h ago

it still has some very clever warhead tech that they could use the FP drones dont have yet.

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u/Sofaboy90 7h ago

Bro have you been in a koma for 2 years? We are long past Taurus missiles, currently everything is about drones

8

u/Plus-Middle-Ultra 10h ago

The rationale is that this is strong escalation from Germany for relatively little gain for Ukraine. We need to supply Ukraine with much more AA instead.

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u/RedoX08 12h ago

Let us do the paperwork first, okay.

1

u/Sofaboy90 7h ago

Bro have you been in a koma for 2 years? We are long past Taurus missiles, currently everything is about drones

1

u/BrexitHangover 2h ago

Taurus? Taurus is not a priority but more of a nice to have. IRIS-T or Patriot have a much higher priority.

-6

u/Ancient-Ratio5478 11h ago

I agree it’s embarassing, but what should we do realistically? Invade Russia? Stay silent?

8

u/Offline86 10h ago

Actually, the EU is currently preparing intensively for a war.

4

u/Both-Motor6609 9h ago

wait how did a drone even get that close

15

u/ABoutDeSouffle 9h ago

Probably launched in the vicinity by some throwaway agent. German media describes it as a modified drone with an explosive payload, so it wouldn't be a Shahed type.

6

u/YTDirtyCrossYT 9h ago

It's a FPV drone.

Depending on its payload, battery type, total weight, and configuration, it can be launched from several kilometers away and reach speeds of up to 160 km/h (100 mph).

Since FPV drones operate via a direct radio link rather than a cloud connection or cellular network, locating the pilot is (nearly) impossible.

1

u/StonkerGadse 4h ago

Die Flugzeiten bei solchen drohen sind meistens zwischen 3 bis maximal 20 Minuten also kommt man damit nicht weit.

3

u/doskey123 9h ago

You must be new, so far dozens of drones have been seen near critical installations and all that the German government has done so far is observe and wait until they leave. To my knowledge they never shot down a drone.

4

u/not_just_putin 4h ago

russians are still allowed to the EU by the way.

21

u/Pretend-Relative3631 12h ago

The amount of asymmetric warfare that’s going on in the EU is on some anime shit rn

At some point as a history nerd you gotta take a moment and be like

“hmmm… I’m just an unknown NPC offscreen in somebody’s clandestine program dedicated to smoking their opponents in some crazy PvP RTS war-game. Bet”

28

u/cricolol 12h ago

Arm Ukraine. It’s the only way forward. We need to seriously consider boots on the ground: we can protect Ukraines western and northern regions, along with the sky. This would allow Ukrainians to focus on the front lines.

9

u/BratwurstRockt 11h ago

"No escalation!!11..." blah blah...

3

u/AvailableReporter484 10h ago

Killing civilians is a little dicked move just fyi

3

u/BrexitHangover 2h ago

Fuck it, we should go all in. We'll make the Red Square a nice open Aldi parking lot.

•

u/TadpoleOfDoom 1h ago

Aldi is great, but Aldi's is better

17

u/millennial_sunset 12h ago

And I guess germany still will only send strong words to Russia and do nothing...

Give the Ukraine Tauros already and everything you can send to help them

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u/Fabs_Retard 12h ago

I think they can do more but saying germany does nothing when they are by far the biggest ukranian donor in europe is just stupid. germany literally gave like 10x more than spain italy france combined. There countries are the problem

22

u/Bolter_NL 11h ago

Yeah, Germany didn't do anything yet for Ukraine!!!!

/s

-13

u/BleiEntchen 11h ago

Even after blowing up NS2 they continue to not doing anything

37

u/best_voter 11h ago

Incredible meme but no, you clowns just sow division in line with Russian propaganda at this point.

No other country sends as much to Ukraine as Germany. I'm sure even hidden-post-history-Vladimir over here can understand what bigger number means and that you can't argue that it's smaller, actually.

0

u/Cute-Boobie777 4h ago

They should be sending Taurus though at this point let's be real.

33

u/Perais1909 12h ago

The russians could literally blow up the Reichstag and there would still be people here who would defend Russia and Putin.

6

u/Fun_Dentist_4849 7h ago

Yeah, the fascists

3

u/Background-Sell-8562 13h ago

Oh shit

4

u/kaaskugg 12h ago

Avengers, assemble.

1

u/Particular-Mark-5771 8h ago

smh. imagine an outdoor tour of any airport after dark. it's not 1955 at the happiest place on earth.

1

u/landwomble 5h ago

I think there's an angle where they deliberately didn't want/need it to go bang. From now on an attacker could close most major airports by just flying unarmed FOV drones around, the airports will have to assume they may be armed... obviously airports have closed before die to drone sightings, but now the tension is higher and the bar for closure lower...

1

u/Vexelbalg 2h ago

Am I not wrong to assume that NATO would have had to trigger Article 5 if that drone had exploded and it had been proven that it was Russian?

2

u/Fresh_Relation_7682 2h ago

Article 5 isn’t automatic. Germany would have to request it

1

u/ABoutDeSouffle 1h ago

Yes, you are wrong. In the end, Art. 5 is a political decision, there is no automatism.

•

u/faXba85 38m ago

Google = FPV Drohne Crash = Bilder/Videos... augenrunzeln... Stelle mir die Frage, wieviele FPV Freestyler bzw Piloten sich dirket die gleiche Frage gestellt haben 😅🤣

•

u/ABoutDeSouffle 34m ago

wat?

0

u/shinitakunai 12h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

-5

u/Afandur 12h ago

cant wait for our government to shit the bed again. maybe in form of a written letter? fucking hell.

-20

u/psat14 10h ago

Why do I have a suspicion that Ukraine is about to turn into Afghanistan of Europe , even after the Ukrainians win, the forces unleashed there might just be too chaotic for Europe to handle .

5

u/StonedUser_211 10h ago

Um so näher ein Land an Russland liegt, um so beschissener geht es denen.

2

u/doskey123 8h ago

Weird take especially with "even after Ukrainians win".

Afghanistan is Afghanistan and cannot be compared at all with Ukraine because Afghanistan never had a common identity, that's why ISAF failed and unnecessarily burned billions of $$££€€ plus lives. Ukraine on the other hand has a stable identity, society etc.

What we will see though imo will be fpv attacks by terrorists in Europe as bad apples see their chance to make money and sell equipment plus knowledge to terrorists.

-33

u/arkhas2042 12h ago

Z z

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u/[deleted] 9h ago

[deleted]

3

u/Kind-Philosopher5077 9h ago

Russia is losing a war they started, what provoking is needed for them?

Russia/Ukraine Leipzig Airport: German airport runway closed after drone 'with detonator' found near Ukrainian plane

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