Russia prepared An-124 explosion in Leipzig: The Insider names perpetrators and GRU role

Russian intelligence planned to destroy an An-124 Ruslan cargo plane transporting munitions at Leipzig airport in Germany. This became known from an investigation by The Insider, which not only confirmed the GRU's involvement in the incident but also established the names of specific perpetrators.

Failed drone attack at the airfield

On the evening of 4 August, an unmanned aerial vehicle with an explosive charge crashed into the wing of a plane parked at Leipzig airport. The detonation mechanism did not trigger, and the drone fell to the ground. It was discovered by a bus driver several hours after the incident.

The plane was empty at the time, however, shortly before the attack, it had delivered munitions from France via Leipzig. One can imagine the casualties and destruction an explosion would have caused had the sabotage succeeded and the plane actually been loaded with munitions.

German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt stated that police and intelligence service data point to Russian responsibility. Previously, the press, citing sources, named suspects — Oleg L. and Andriy K., linked to the GRU, but provided no evidence. It was only known that one of them held Latvian citizenship, which was confirmed by Latvian intelligence services.

Who organised the sabotage

The Insider journalists established that Colonel Denys Smolyaninov of the GRU was behind the operation. In January 2026, he was observed in Moscow in the company of Andriy Usachov, a weapons dealer, and Volodymyr Trofimov, a knife-throwing coach and parishioner of the Nativity of the Theotokos Church in Krylatskoye, Moscow.

54-year-old Andriy Usachov has a criminal past: in 2000, he received a nine-year prison sentence for the armed robbery of a currency exchange point. After his release, he engaged in business in the weapons sector. His company, Zbroiova Palata, supplied equipment to the Rosgvardia, but in 2023, it emerged that their Vyzhygatel complex turned out to be a cheap Chinese SkyfendHunter SHH100 drone, imported illegally. After leaving the company, Usachov was noticed by the GRU.

Logistics and perpetrators

On 13 July 2026, Usachov called Oleg Levushkin from Pskov. Levushkin, known as a biker and owner of a tea and coffee import company, held Latvian citizenship, which gave him free access to the EU, as well as a company in Serbia to justify his trips.

On 26 July, Levushkin bought a ticket to Istanbul, from where he flew to Berlin. There, he rented a car and drove towards Leipzig. A few hours before the attack, on 4 August, he purchased a return ticket: a flight from North Macedonia to Moscow with a layover in Istanbul.

Link to sabotage in Poland

The investigation found traces of Belarusian Andriy Karshakov, who lives in Russia, on the drone control antenna. It turned out that two years earlier, on 25 July 2024, Karshakov participated in the arson of a Leroy Merlin hypermarket in the Polish city of Lodz. At that time, a shelf with insecticides was on fire, and the damage was estimated at 200,000 zloty (approximately 45,000 euros). The official cause was cited as a violation of storage rules.

The Insider researchers identified Karshakov and his accomplice Maksym Lapunov (former surname — Kolosov) on a bank ATM video recording. Lapunov, judging by flight data, was also involved in the Leipzig sabotage: on 19 July 2026, he flew from St Petersburg to Ankara, and then to Belgrade. Sources in European law enforcement agencies indicate that Lapunov was highly likely present in Germany on the days of the attack.

The involvement of other Belarusians living in Russia is also not ruled out: Roman Kovalievsky (wanted for robbery), Vyacheslav Aysin, and former police officer Denys Shulhan. Aysin regularly visited Germany, including Leipzig.

Profile of the GRU curator

Denys Smolyaninov was born in 1976 in Chelyabinsk. He graduated from the Chelyabinsk Higher Military Aviation School of Navigators, served in Smolensk, and studied at the GRU Academy on Narodnogo Opolcheniya Street. He subsequently worked at the 172nd GRU Command and Reconnaissance Centre in St Petersburg, specialising in the Ukrainian direction.

As early as 2023, the Dossier Centre reported that Smolyaninov was recruiting criminals, including neo-Nazis who had served time for murder, for intelligence work in Ukraine. Among his agents was former GRU officer Volodymyr Borisov (Praporshchik), leader of the Falcon-95 group. Borisov, who was declared wanted in 2017 for the raider seizure of the Institute of Architectural and Construction Design, hid in Bulgaria for a time but was extradited to Russia in 2021. It was believed he was in a Russian prison, but according to The Insider, he was soon released, obtained a new foreign passport, and is already actively flying abroad in the company of other criminals.