U.S. intelligence officials warned the German authorities earlier this year that Russia was plotting to assassinate the head of Europe’s biggest weapons producer, according to two Western officials, amid an escalating sabotage campaign by Moscow to raise the cost of Western support for Ukraine.
The Western officials said the alleged plot to kill Armin Papperger, the head of Rheinmetall, a major German arms manufacturer that has been a key supplier of artillery shells and tanks for Ukraine, was part of the Kremlin’s spiraling hybrid war against the West. The warning to the Germans about the plot, first reported by CNN on Thursday, was made by the United States earlier this year, those officials said.
Europe has been grappling with a rapid increase in Moscow-led sabotage attacks or plots as Russia ramps up efforts to undermine Western support for Ukraine. Poland, Britain, Lithuania, the Czech Republic and Germany have been hit with a string of arson or attempted arson attacks in recent months that Western officials have linked to Russian intelligence.
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