Berlin: German authorities said Thursday they had arrested a Ukrainian man and Latvian man on suspicion of planning acts of sabotage for a foreign organisation after "suspicious" items were found in their car.
The men, aged 43 and 45, were found with fake identity documents, cameras, a drone, GPS trackers as well as several mobile phones and sim cards during a routine traffic stop, police and prosecutors said.
It comes with Germany on high alert for acts of sabotage amid fears that Russia is targeting it because of Berlin's support for Kyiv throughout Moscow's four-year-old full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Their car, which had a Latvian licence plate, was stopped on 12 April on a motorway near Nuremberg, in southern Bavaria state, they said.
"We are currently working on the assumption that the suspects were acting on behalf of a group or institution outside Germany," they said, without giving further details.
The men, whose identities were not disclosed, have been remanded in custody.
They face up to five years in prison should they be charged and eventually convicted of preparing sabotage for a foreign power.
They are also suspected of falsifying identity documents, which carries up to two years in prison.
Three Ukrainian citizens went on trial last month in the southern city of Stuttgart, accused of being part of a plot to send explosive parcels across Germany and Ukraine.
