A man and woman accused of spying for Moscow on a drone supplier in Germany have been arrested, officials said Tuesday, the latest case of alleged Russian espionage amid the Ukraine war.
Berlin, one of Kyiv's key military backers, has faced a flood of suspected espionage, sabotage and disinformation plots directed by Russia since the full-scale invasion began in 2022.
In the latest case, the man, a Ukrainian national partially identified as Sergey N., was arrested in Alicante, Spain on February 17 by local police under a European arrest warrant, German federal prosecutors said.
The woman, a Romanian national identified as Alla S., was arrested on Monday in Germany, they said.
"Starting in December 2025, Sergey N., acting on behalf of a Russian intelligence service, surveilled a person in Germany who was shipping drones and related components from here to Ukraine," prosecutors said in a statement.
The suspect gathered information and made video recordings of the individual's workplace, it said.
When he moved to Spain, Alla S. took over the assignment, going to the target's address and filming it with her phone.
"The surveillance activities were presumably intended to prepare further intelligence operations against the target," prosecutors said.
Der Spiegel news outlet reported that investigators believe these operations could have included physical attacks or an assassination attempt.
The businessman's company had in the past supplied small attack drones to Ukraine and in recent times had specialised in individual components, it said.
Alla S. will appear in court on Wednesday. Sergey N. will appear in court after his transfer from Spain.
German authorities have increasingly warned that Russia is trying to recruit "disposable agents", in particular via social media, to carry out espionage and sabotage.
Such agents have no formal training and carry out acts, ranging from arson to property damage and drone overflights of sensitive sites, in exchange for small sums, officials say.