Der Spiegel: The weapons cache found outside Berlin was left there by a 24-year-old Ukrainian man arrested in Romania
The weapons cache found in a forest outside Berlin, which German media reported on in August, was set up by a 24-year-old Ukrainian identified as Vadym S., according to the German magazine Der Spiegel. Citing intelligence services, the magazine said he was part of a group preparing acts of sabotage in European countries on orders from Russian intelligence.
Polish law enforcement agencies, which had tracked Vadym S.’s movements, determined that on October 1, 2025, he traveled by bus from Poland to Berlin, picked up two packages there, and placed them in the cache in the forest. When the cache was opened, the packages were found to contain two pistols and ammunition.
From Berlin, Vadym S. returned to Poland and soon afterward traveled to Romania. He was detained in Bucharest on October 16 after leaving two packages containing incendiary devices at a local branch of the Ukrainian delivery company Nova Poshta.
A second Ukrainian was detained along with Vadym S., according to Der Spiegel. In keeping with German media convention, the magazine did not identify either man further. The independent Russian investigative outlet Agentstvo found records showing that two Ukrainians were arrested in Romania on October 16, 2025: 24-year-old Vadym Shcherbakov and 21-year-old Bohdan Filipchuk.
The Romanian outlet Libertatea said in June that Russian intelligence services had overseen the attempted firebombing of the Nova Poshta branch and that Shcherbakov had received his assignments from his uncle. Libertatea also said both men were born in the Kherson region, now partly occupied by Russia, and moved to Poland in 2025.
German intelligence officials had also said earlier that the cache might have been intended for Russian agents carrying out “kinetic operations.” But they stressed that the investigation was still underway.
The cache was placed under surveillance, but for a year no one came to check on it. The Russian Embassy in Germany, in comments to the Russian business news outlet RBC, called reports linking the cache to Russian intelligence services “speculation.”
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