A drone carrying explosives was discovered near a Ukrainian aircraft at Leipzig/Halle Airport in Germany late on Tuesday, prompting officials to shut down both runways and warn that the incident marked "a new quality of danger." Authorities confirmed the investigation on Wednesday, treating it as a potential hybrid attack, given the airport's role in handling NATO and Ukraine-related flights.

The closure temporarily halted operations at one of Europe's key logistics and military-linked hubs. The incident comes amid a wider pattern of suspected drone activity over sensitive sites across Germany, France and the UK, with a recent report from the International Institute for Strategic Studies identifying 144 such suspected incursions, widely linked to Russia's so-called shadow fleet testing NATO's air defences.