24-year-old Ukrainian hid weapons cache near Berlin on Moscow’s orders, report says

The suspect reportedly traveled to Berlin by bus from Poland. After hiding the weapons in a wooded area near Müggelsee lake, he sent photos and coordinates to his handlers.

Using coordinates intercepted by Polish counterparts, German security services soon located the cache and conducted a covert inspection. It contained two pistols, including a copy of a Makarov pistol, along with ammunition, Der Spiegel reported.

German authorities then placed the cache under secret surveillance to determine who would retrieve the weapons. Police specialists also secretly rendered the weapons unusable. However, no one collected them during several weeks of surveillance.

“This may have been because the suspected weapons courier, Vadym S., was arrested in Romania in mid-October in connection with another case,” Der Spiegel reported.

“In Bucharest, the capital, the suspect allegedly took part, together with a Ukrainian accomplice, in preparing attacks against the Ukrainian delivery company Nova Poshta.”

According to Romania’s intelligence agency, SRI, the two men belonged to a “sabotage network” targeting European countries and controlled by Russian intelligence services.

Before that, Polish intelligence agencies had placed Vadym S. under surveillance as part of a counter-sabotage investigation and tracked the location of his smartphone. That information helped authorities locate the cache in Berlin, the publication reported.

Der Spiegel said investigators were particularly interested in a lead involving one of Vadym S.’s relatives. According to Polish counterintelligence, the relative allegedly worked for Russian intelligence services.

“However, German intelligence agencies have not definitively established whether that is true,” the publication reported.

“Romanian authorities, meanwhile, have information indicating that Vadym S.’s uncle allegedly persuaded him to send incendiary bombs. According to that information, the uncle also led the young Ukrainian to an underground cache in Poland, where modified headphones and six tubes containing fire accelerant had been buried.”