Germany announced Wednesday that it is shutting down Russia's last remaining consulate general on German soil, expelling its staff and axing a decades-old cultural-exchange agreement, after concluding that Moscow was behind an attempted drone-bomb attack on a Ukrainian aircraft at Leipzig/Halle Airport.

Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt told reporters that "police investigations, patterns of the offenses and intelligence findings establish Russian responsibility for the attempted attack at Leipzig Airport," calling the method "known to us from other Russian hybrid operations and its war against Ukraine." The explosive-laden drone was discovered near the plane on August 4 and safely defused before it could detonate; no one was hurt.

The retaliation

Berlin's response lands hard on Russia's remaining diplomatic footprint in the country. Officials ordered Russia's Consulate General in Bonn — the last of what were once five Russian consulates in Germany, after Frankfurt, Hamburg, Leipzig and Munich were shuttered in earlier rounds — to close by September 18. The government is also terminating a 2011 intergovernmental agreement that has kept Berlin's "Russian House" cultural and information center running, ordering its staff out along with their families. Russia's ambassador was summoned to the Foreign Ministry, and Germany is tightening entry screening for Russian citizens.

Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul framed the move as part of a broader pattern rather than an isolated incident. "It fits into a broader pattern of Russian hybrid operations in Europe," he said, adding that "the Russian leadership decided deliberately to do significant damage again to our already massively burdened bilateral relationship." He insisted Germany "remains secure" and "will defend itself against adversaries who seek to create insecurity."

"A FENCE SENDS A MESSAGE" — the tone from Berlin has hardened fast: from consulates to cultural centers, officials say every remaining outpost of Russian diplomacy is now on the table.

Moscow rejected the accusation outright. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that "if such serious accusations are being made, they should be supported by evidence. To my knowledge, none has been presented." Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova went further, calling the German findings a "far-fetched and contrived pretext for Berlin to escalate tensions" with "no convincing or serious evidence," and signaled Moscow would respond to what she called Berlin's "anti-Russian action." Russia's ambassador said separately, via the state agency TASS, that Germany had refused to let Bonn consulate staff simply relocate to Berlin rather than leave the country entirely.

The Leipzig plot is the latest in a string of incidents German and European officials have blamed on Russian sabotage or influence campaigns since the invasion of Ukraine, from rail disruptions to cyberattacks on infrastructure — including a separate investigation into twin strikes on Germany's power grid in a single day that authorities are examining for links to the same pattern of hybrid attacks.

What happens next: the Bonn consulate is due to formally close around September 18, and Moscow has hinted at retaliatory measures against German diplomatic missions inside Russia, though it has not specified what those would be. Berlin has not ruled out further steps if additional plots are uncovered.