Germany refutes reports of ammunition on plane near drone found with explosives
Kyiv • UNN
Germany's Interior Ministry has denied reports of a drone carrying explosives near a cargo plane carrying ammunition. The plane was empty.
Germany's Federal Ministry of the Interior denied reports that a drone carrying explosives had been near a cargo plane loaded with ammunition intended for Ukraine, UNN writes, citing DW.
Details
At a meeting of the Bundestag's committees on defense and internal affairs, it was clearly stated that there were no weapons or other ammunition on the plane, the dpa news agency reported, providing information that matched an earlier article by the news magazine Focus.
Detlef Seif, chairman of the Committee on Internal Affairs, also denied these reports, telling Reuters that in all the conversations he had participated in so far, "the aircraft had not been loaded with ammunition or weapons."
Maret Montavon, head of communications and government relations at Mitteldeutsche Flughafen, which operates Leipzig Airport, told the daily Leipziger Volkszeitung that there had been no cargo on the plane.
"The Antonov aircraft in question was empty at the time of the incident and therefore was not carrying any cargo. This assessment is consistent with the information we received from Antonov Logistics SALIS," Montavon told the newspaper.
The ministry did not respond to an official request for comment.
Security sources said that an explosives-laden drone had been detected on Tuesday near a Ukrainian Antonov An-124 cargo plane. The Federal Police defused the explosive device.
Germany's Federal Minister of the Interior, Alexander Dobrindt, invited several European counterparts to a meeting following the incident, his ministry confirmed on Thursday. The stated aim of the meeting is to coordinate a joint defense strategy to combat drones and improve the protection of critical infrastructure.