German authorities are investigating two separate incidents that disrupted power infrastructure in the eastern and western parts of the country as possible acts of sabotage, officials said Tuesday. The developments have heightened concerns nationwide, coming just a day after the German government publicly attributed an attempted drone attack on Leipzig/Halle Airport earlier this month to Russia. The near-simultaneous disruptions to critical energy infrastructure have added to a growing sense of alert among German security officials, who are now weighing whether the two events are connected to a broader pattern of hybrid threats facing the country.

The first incident occurred near the Jänschwalde coal-fired power plant in Brandenburg, in northeastern Germany, where multiple explosive devices were discovered at a substation Tuesday morning. Authorities said the devices did not trigger a widespread power outage, though several of them caused short circuits at the site. The discovery of multiple devices, rather than a single isolated object, has raised particular concern among investigators, who are working to determine how the devices were placed, how long they had been there, and who might be responsible. No arrests have been announced in connection with the Brandenburg discovery, and authorities have been cautious about assigning blame while the investigation remains in its early stages.

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A separate incident unfolded Tuesday evening at the Bergheim power substation near Cologne, in western Germany, where a short circuit knocked out several power lines. Essen police said the circumstances point to deliberate action rather than mechanical failure. "Based on the current state of the investigation, we are not assuming a technical defect, but rather a deliberate act, a crime," police said, according to the German press agency dpa. As with the Brandenburg incident, no general power outage was reported, suggesting that grid operators were able to reroute electricity and limit the impact on consumers despite the disruption at the substation.

RWE, the energy company that operates coal-fired plants connected to the Bergheim substation, said five generating units with a combined capacity of 4,200 megawatts were taken offline as a result of the disruption. The company said it expects the units to resume operation by the weekend, indicating that while the incident caused a significant, if temporary, reduction in available power generation capacity, it is not expected to have a lasting effect on the region's energy supply. The scale of the units affected underscores the potential vulnerability of major energy infrastructure to targeted disruption, even when the immediate consequences for end users remain limited.

Tuesday's incidents follow a pattern of disruptions to German power infrastructure in recent months. In January, suspected left-wing extremists were blamed for setting fire to high-voltage lines near a power plant in southwest Berlin, an episode that already prompted heightened scrutiny of the security surrounding the country's energy network. Brandenburg's interior minister, Jan Redmann, said investigators have not ruled out foreign involvement in the latest cases. "This is a hybrid threat we are currently experiencing, and therefore we cannot rule out the possibility that foreign powers are behind it," Redmann told German media, according to dpa. His remarks reflect a broader concern among German officials that the country's critical infrastructure — from airports to power grids — may increasingly be viewed as a target in a wider campaign of destabilization.

The renewed scrutiny of critical infrastructure comes amid broader unease in Germany following the government's assessment that Russia was behind an Aug. 4 attempt to strike Leipzig/Halle Airport with an explosive-laden drone. Authorities have not confirmed a direct link between that incident and Tuesday's substation disruptions, but officials say the pattern of attacks on strategic sites is being treated with heightened seriousness. Investigations into both the Brandenburg and Bergheim incidents remain ongoing, with security agencies expected to coordinate closely as they assess whether the events are isolated or part of a coordinated effort targeting German infrastructure.

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