Journalists had access to secret reports from German law enforcement agencies, according to which 1,072 incidents involving 1,955 unidentified drones have been recorded since the beginning of the year. Most of them are noticed in the evening, often in groups. Most often, drones appeared over military installations, NATO training grounds and critical infrastructure.
An analysis of the navigation tracks of ships located in areas of drone activity at the same hours revealed similarities. One example is the Russian bulk carrier Lauga, near which German police spotted seven drones on May 16. A few days later the ship arrived in Belgium, where it was searched, but nothing was found. Before this, Lauga stood for a long time in the Syrian city of Tartus, where a large Russian military base is located, and after inspection it headed to St. Petersburg, to a terminal associated with Rosatom, which, according to leaks, has its own drones.
Similar situations arose with the vessels HAV Snapper and HAV Dolphin, which formally belong to a Norwegian company, but were repeatedly serviced at the Pregol shipyard in Russian Kaliningrad.
During the periods when these two vessels were cruising, Germany recorded massive flights of drones over the Kiel Bay, where military installations are located. The crew of the HAV Dolphin turned out to be entirely Russian, and the check by the German police was, as sources admitted, “rather symbolic.”
European intelligence services, responding to a request from journalists, stated that they consider the HAV Snapper and HAV Dolphin as vessels that are highly likely to act in the interests of Russia.
