Two workers have been arrested on suspicion of sabotaging several German warships at Hamburg harbour in 2025, the prosecutor general's office said on Tuesday.
The accused, a 37-year-old Romanian and a 54-year-old Greek, tampered with the vessels by pouring more than 20 kilograms of steel pellets into an engine block, puncturing freshwater lines, removing fuel tank caps and disabling fuses in the onboard electronics, according to the investigators.
The sabotage was discovered during pre-departure checks as one of the ships, the corvette Emden, was preparing for its inaugural journey to the port city of Kiel.
The activities could have led to significant damage if left undetected, the prosecutor general's office said, adding that investigations were still ongoing.
The two men were arrested in Hamburg and a village in Greece, with their residences in Hamburg, Romania and Greece searched by authorities.
According to Greek police officials and security sources, the 54-year-old man was arrested in the early morning hours inside his home in northern Greece following a European arrest warrant issued on behalf of Germany.
Among the items confiscated from his home were six mobile phones, three USB sticks, a SIM card and a hard drive, and evidence of 19 bank accounts, officials said.
According to Greek court documents, the arrested men were tasked with painting work on the corvette Koeln in June 2025. During the work, they manually shut the control panel, cutting power off on the vessel and risking starting a fire.
Germany's defence ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A spokesperson for the prosecutor's office in Hamburg declined to say whether authorities suspected Russia of being behind the sabotage.
Political leaders and military officials have accused Russia of engaging in acts of sabotage, espionage, and hybrid warfare since Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The Kremlin has repeatedly denied such allegations, dismissing them as unsubstantiated.
(Reporting by Sabine Siebold in Berlin and Yannis Souliotis and Renee Maltezou in Athens; editing by Philippa Fletcher and Maria Martinez)
